Track: RHS girls 4th, boys 9th at Kaukauna

The Rhinelander High School track team opened May with its first big tune-up for larger meets coming up later in the month. The Hodag girls came home fourth and the Hodag boys tied for ninth in the 11-team Galloping Ghost Invite in Kaukauna.

Going against a field mainly comprised of Division 1 schools, with a couple of Division 2 programs mixed in, the Hodag coaching staff said the meet served as a valuable litmus test for the squad prior to championship season.

“It’s just a humbling experience, but then at the same time, it’s also like, ‘OK if I want to be at this level, if I want to score points at this meet, if I want to place at this meet, I’m going to have to show up,’” Hodag girls’ track coach Andy Wyss said. “I think it’s a good test meet, especially kind of getting into the start of May and championship season. Seeing kind of the measuring sticks, where we want be amongst competition like this, I think it’s really good for us.”

The Hodag girls vaulted, literally, from eighth to fourth in the team standings thanks to the final event to conclude on the evening. Sophomore Macy Myers once again put her name in the school record book in the pole vault and, this time, became the first female in RHS history to clear the 10-foot mark in the event as she scored a runner-up finish. That beat the mark of 9-10 she set in Rhinelander’s final indoor meet of the season in Wausau back on April 10.

“That’s a big deal, again school record, personal best and that’s coming down at the end of the meet,” Wyss said. “She’s got a little nagging injury going on, and I don’t know what the temperature was, but she was able to do that … vaulting in sweatpants and a hoodie. So the fact that she was able to do that, on not 100% legs and in those conditions, I was very pleased to see that.”

Rhinelander’s two returning individual state qualifiers had strong performances on Friday. Junior Aila Bergman was the runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles (47.05 seconds) and added a third-place finish in the 100 hurdles (16.53). She was also part of a third-place finish at the end of the night in the 4x400 relay with junior Violet Biolo, freshman Ellie Cummings and sophomore Lucy Eddy (4:17.59). 

“It’s nice to see her challenged a little bit, pushed a little bit and then responding well,” Wyss said, “I know that those hurdlers are diligently working on things and practice so then being able to see that translate into a meet … it’s paying off and that’s always a lot of fun as coaches.”

Junior Libbey Buchmann took fourth in both of the throwing events. She set a personal best in the shot put with a throw of 33 feet, 9 1/2 inches and had a toss of 120-8 in the discus. 

“That’s kind of where we’re at now is that (her marks), they’re good, but they’re not where she wants to be. I hope that that makes her hungry,” Wyss said.

Once again, the distance crew had the best results of the night for the Hodag boys’ team. Rhinelander opened the running portion of the meet with a runner-up showing in the 4x800 relay as the squad of Shawn Denis, Jackson Weinzatl, Greyson Gremban and Avrom Barr went 8:26.74, losing out to New London by 1.35 seconds. Barr added a fourth-place run for the Hodags in the 1,600 meters (4:48.52) while Gremban took fourth in the 3,200 (10:13.42).

“Watching the boys 4x8 it was just really fun to see them compete. Greyson pulled out ahead and Avrom took the baton after being set up really well by the other guys. For them to do so well against teams that are much bigger than we are, that’s a feather in their cap,” Hodag boys’ track coach Aaron Kraemer said. “As for what they did in their open events, you can look at our conference, there’s a crown to be taken and I think that they’re excited about the opportunity to do that … This year they really have the opportunity to take the bull by the horns and score lots of points for the team.”

Senior Reid Schultz added a fourth-place showing for the Hodags in shot put, with a personal-best of 46-8 1/2. 

“He’s getting spin down and I think he’d even tell you if you asked him that the throw that he threw he still had some height that he could put on it. It kind of came out a little flat, but he pushed it out there really nice,” Kraemer said.

Rhinelander had some young relays on the girls’ side. The most experienced was the 4x800, which took fourth with seniors Brynn Teter and Luna Grage, and sophomores Myers and Kara Monk. The Hodags were fifth in the 4x100 and sixth in the 4x200 with the quartet of freshmen Cummings, Mady Treder and Addison Fish, along with the sophomore Eddy.

“Based on availability and injury, that changed a lot from early week to late week,” Wyss said. “Those original lineups we had set kind of went out the window. We were pulling some young kids. It’s kind of next man up mentality with the relays, giving those younger girls. some opportunities. They did really well. I was so pleased with those girls that got the opportunity. They meshed really well together, they practiced really well together and really, really took advantage of that opportunity in the absence of some others.”

Biolo scored for the Hodags in the sprints. She qualified for the finals and took fifth overall in the 100 meters (13.28) and added an eighth-place run in the 200 (27.68). Both performances were personal-bests. 

“We ran her in a lot of open events indoors, and running the 55 and things like that, and then haven’t had as much of that outdoors,” Wyss said. “So it was nice to see her in those individual events and being able to make the finals in 100, place in both the 100 in the 200, and we still got things to work on. So that’s good to see.”

Jalyn Zadnik added a seventh-place finish for the Hodag girls in the shot put while Emeline Hintz was eighth in the pole vault. 

Truman Lamers scored sixth for the Hodags in the boys’ high jump and took seventh in the triple jump. Ben Olson was seventh in the 200. 

Rhinelander took sixth in the boys’ 4x400 relay with the quartet of Sam Zwaard, Shawn Denis, Evan Shoeder and Matthew Haselton. Olson, Landon Catlin, Myles Eagleson and Zwaard ran to a seventh-place finish in the 4x100.

The Hodags are back in action tonight at the Lakeland Invite in Minocqua and will then head to the Otto Bacher Invitational in Merrill on Friday. 

“Next week, it’s going to be about finding opportunities for kids especially, early in the week, and then figuring out, like we did this week, what is our best team going into Otto Bacher,” Kraemer said. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].