Team review: RHS cross country

The Rhinelander High School cross country team turned in a solid performance during the 2025 season that ended with three runners participating in the WIAA Division 2 state meet.

On the boys’ side, the Hodags were conference runners-up for the second year in a row, finishing only five points behind Lakeland for the conference title. The Hodags had another close call at sectionals, finishing seven points behind Shawano for the second and final team state qualifying spot. 

The Hodag girls were third in the conference standings but had a pair of first-team all-conference runners for the second year in a row and, this time, the Hodags got one of those runners through to state —the first time in eight years that that has happened. 

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.

Chasing Lakeland

Rhinelander chased Lakeland on the boys’ side virtually all season last year, finally clipping the T-Birds at sectionals to make it to the state meet. 

Right out of the gate this year, the two established themselves as the teams to beat in the GNC again. While Lakeland had Rhinelander by 60-some points in the season-opening Hodag Invite, Rhinelander closed the gap and even beat the T-Birds on a couple of occasions when they were missing a runner or two. Ultimately the Hodags came up five points shy at conference — despite placing four runners in the top 12 and six in the top 21.

“Lakeland made a comment that we made it interesting, and I think we did a lot more than that,” coach M.J. Laggis said. “We were a team that was getting beat by them by 60 points in the beginning of the year. And today we pulled it within five, and I give them credit. They’re very good, but I got to say that our mantra is this we keep getting better and we work hard and we’re a blue collar team. No doubt about it. We closed that gap significantly.”

Lakeland and Rhinelander were projected first and second going into the sectional the following week. While Lakeland ran to the sectional title, the Hodags were clipped by Shawano for the runner-up spot — a set back for the Hodags who were looking to send their boys’ team to state for the second straight season and third time in the last five years.

“It wasn’t a lack effort by our boys, but I’ll be honest, Shawano’s No. 1 and 2 ran faster than they’ve ran, and their No. 4 and 5 beat ours, and they beat us by seven points,” Laggis said. “We were right in there, but just couldn’t quite get it done today on the boys’ side and finished third.” 

Record breaker

    In this Nov. 1, 2025 file photo, Rhinelander’s Macy Myers competes in the WIAA Division 2 state girls’ cross country race in Wisconsin Rapids. Myers, who broke the girls’ 5K school record this season, finished 32nd with a time of 19 minutes, 59.1 seconds. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Following a breakout sophomore season where she narrowly missed qualifying for the WIAA state meet, junior Macy Myers kicked it into another gear this year to establish herself as one off the top runners in program history. 

She cemented that title by running a time of 19 minutes, 30.4 seconds at the Hatchet Invite Oct. 11 — the fastest in school history. That eclipsed the mark of 19:31.6 set by Alayna Franson in 2017

“I definitely didn’t expect to break a record, so that was pretty cool. I didn’t really know the record was that, so that’s fun. Yeah, I’m really happy about that,” Myers said afterward. “I was really surprised, honestly, because this course is flatter and I tend to do better on hills. But I think I really worked on my stride today, and just lengthening that, and that helped me go faster.”

Myers broke her own record a couple of weeks later at sectionals, going 19:29.98 to finish fourth in that race and become the Hodags’ first state qualifier on the girls’ side since Franson. She backed up that performance with a 32nd-place run at state, finishing in under 20 minutes.

“I didn’t think Alayna’s record would get broke for a long time. I really didn’t, because Alayna was a fantastic runner,” Laggis said. “It really ignited in my brain again how strong this girl is — how strong she looks on hills, how strong she looks later in the race when some people start to crumble or fall apart. She just doesn’t have that in her and just total backbone in a total runner.”

Three at state

Myers was one of three Hodags to run at state earlier this month. Avrom Barr capped off a strong junior campaign in which he won both the Great Northern Conference and sectional meets with a 41st-place run in Wisconsin Rapids. His time of 17:00.6 ranked as the fastest any Hodag has run at state since Laggis took over the program in 2013. 

“He earns it all summer long, he earns it all year round with that work ethic of his,” Laggis sad. “He just doesn’t quit. The way that he treats teammates, the adversity that he’s overcome in his life, and he’s just been, you know, truly like one of those people that when the day is done, you feel kind of lucky that you’re able to be around him and coach him, and he’s always so gracious and so thankful to everyone and everything. And, you know, really admirable.”

Barr was joined at state by teammate Jackson Weinzatl, who made it through with a seventh-place run at sectionals. Weinzatl bettered his time and placement at state by roughly 30 spots and 30 seconds from a year ago, finishing 83rd with a time of 17:48.1

“I can’t reiterate enough, just the leadership quality, and the kind of kid that he’s been to our program,” Laggis said. “If you have a guy like Jackson, who is an athlete and (has) a leadership-type role on the team, and he’s got a very good attitude at practice time, than the vibe goes that way, the flow goes that way. He just been outstanding to our program, and this is the big bonus is that we get to have this leadership again next year.”

Coming on

    In this Oct. 24, 2025 file photo, Rhinelander Kara Monk competes in a WIAA Division 2 sectional race in Merrill. Monk was Rhinelander’s No. 2 runner on the girls side virtually all season and placed sixth in the Great Northern Conference. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

While the standouts at the top of the lineup came into the season as established varsity contributors, both squad had a runner made significant strides over year to factor near the top of the running order. 

On the girls’ side, it was junior Kara Monk, who battled through an injury-plagued sophomore season — finishing 28th at conference before missing sectionals altogether. 

Healthy this year, Monk had a breakout season as the Hodags No. 2 runner. She took sixth at conference and finished 12th at sectionals, with a time that put her as the fourth-fastest to run a 5K school history (20:23.16).

“When you watched her run this year, she looked completely different,” Laggis said. “She looked so much stronger, so much more confident, the way she carried herself on the course. And she really did all of us proud and made us feel great when she achieved that. It’s a testament to think don’t go quite right one year and you roar back the next year to make it happen.”

On the boys’ side, junior Jonathan Campbell went from a runner who was outside the varsity seven last year to a consistent varsity contributor this year. He finished 12th at conference and 21st at sectionals and was consistently Rhinelander’s third or fourth finisher.

“You can’t believe the change in this guy over the last couple of years,” Laggis said. “Just to see the way that he runs — and, more importantly, the way that his teammates react to him — and he really is  one of the lifebloods the group. Everyone loves being around him, and he is a guy that just went from not being a runner to being really one of our backbone-type kids.”

What’s next

Though the Hodag boys missed qualifying for state as a team, with virtually its entire nucleus set to return, the goal will be to send the whole contingent to Wisconsin Rapids next year. 

In additional to Barr, Weinzatl and Campbell — leading the way as seniors-to-be, the Hodags will have three other returning juniors who contributed most of the year on varsity in Michael Brunette, Grant Gremban and Matthew Wood.

“The end of the year didn’t go quite the way we wanted it for the boys’ team. We were so close in conference and so close and sectionals, so much to build on, right? But it’s great to have young talent in the program that can propel us for in the next couple of years,” Laggis said.

Depth and injury kept the Hodag girls from having more success this year. All three runners who were expected to score behind Myers and Monk — junior Gabby Wanta, sophomore Gretchen Fiebke and freshman Noelle Mayo — missed multiple races during the season due to injury, with Fiebke’s being shut down entirely after only a couple of races. 

Their injuries opened the door for others, however. Newer runners Morgan Cahee, Emily Schiek and Adeline Olson all dropped significant time during the season and could be poised to take a further step up next year. 

“We have a nucleus for next year. We have a band of young ladies up we can put out there and really compete,” he said.

In the interest of full disclosure, the River News notes the author of this story had a family member who was an athlete on the RHS cross country team this fall.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].