Alpine: RHS/Pines girls 2nd, boys 3rd at Snowriver

The Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine ski team couldn’t quite figure out the snow conditions Friday in the third Northern Conference meet of the season. While the Hodag girls still managed a runner-up finish, the Hodag boys slipped back to third in a Northern Conference race at Snowriver Resort in Wakefield, Mich.

Especially on the boys’ side, coach Rod Olson said the team was thrown for a loop by the type of snow that had fallen at the hill in the Lake Superior snowbelt region. He said that caused to team to simply miss the setup when it came to preparing its skis. 

“We chose the wrong wax,” he said. “We figured with the lake snow that it would be a little bit warmer snow. It wasn’t. We should’ve chose the minus-26 wax and we chose like 10-degree with a higher humidity and, usually, coming off the lake that works.

“It was a rough race for us. I wasn’t upset with the kids because their performance, when they did ski, they were skiing well, just all the other factors that are involved in the sport … we had some tough luck.”

Despite the struggles, the Hodags still managed to place three skiers in the top 10 in both the boys’ and girls divisions. 

Rhinelander junior Ben Olson led the Hodag boys in fourth place overall on the day. He took third in the giant slalom, was seventh in Super G and eighth in slalom on the day. Jason Linn came home eighth, aided by a sixth-place run in slalom, and Wyler Koput had two top-10 runs as he finished ninth overall. 

Holden Schmitz (16th), Eli Repenshek (22nd), Henry Schmitz (24th) and Robert Guolee (26th) rounded out the boys’ contingent.

“Our Super G was really bad. We were way off. Ben was way off. I think Eli was pretty far off of their norms and so we lost some points there. Slalom as well,” coach Olson said. “GS was normal. We were able to set that course and kind of stay within where the Super G slipping was. So there’s a lot of the snow was already out the way. I think the how the boys stacked up compared to the competitors was more accurate than you know where they normally would place.”

Northland Pines freshman Jessica Linn scored her best overall finish of the season, taking fifth place on the day. She placed in the top six in every run, taking sixth in Super G and slalom, and sixth in giant slalom. 

“What’s exciting is, you don’t want to say you have a lot to work on with an athlete, but there’s a lot of development that we can still do,” coach Olson said. 

“So it’s exciting to know that you know we’re not down to splitting hairs and she’s getting fifth,” coach Olson added. “We’ve got a lot of room for improvement so that’s super cool. You know great position to be in for coaching an athlete.”

Sisters Callie and Lyndsey Hoerchler added top-10s for the Hodags. Callie, a senior, placed in the top nine in all three runs to finish eighth on the day while Lyndsey, a sophomore, scored two tenths and an eight to finish 10th overall.

“Lyndsey really had a good day, Callie too. Callie’s got a lot of confidence and so happy that you know, mentally, her knee is not really on her mind,” coach Olson said, noting that Callie Hoerchler missed the entire 2024 season due to a knee injury.

Eliana Conrad finished 11th for the Hodags while Karlie Yunkers was 14th and Aila Bergman took 20th. 

The Hodag girls’ ski team sits second in the overall conference standings and the Hodag boys are third, one point behind Ashwabay, through three rounds of the five-race Northern Conference season.

Due to timing issues, official snowboard results were not provided by the league as of press time for today’s edition. However, coach Olson said Rhinelander junior Soren Dumar had the field covered in the first boys’ snowboarding race of the season. 

It was Dumar’s varsity debut after preseason injuries forced him to miss his freshman and sophomore seasons. 

“I totally forgot that this is his first start ever. I mean he has a ton of talent and I told his parents that and I said you know it’s hard for us to motivate him sometimes because he just doesn’t even know how good he is,” Olson said. “Finally he got some proof in the pudding, so I was happy that he’s got that outlook now.”

The fourth conference race of the season takes place today at Mt. Ashwabay in Bayfield. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].