Hodag harriers fare well in GNC primer

The Rhinelander High School cross country team got an excellent litmus test this past Saturday of where it stands heading into the Great Northern Conference meet. Based on that, the Hodags are hoping for good things this weekend when they host GNC championship.

The Hodags boys edged Lakeland for the title of the nine-team Hatchet Invite in Tomahawk while the Hodags girls were third out of six qualifying teams. 

The event, more or less, was a preview of this Saturday’s GNC meet. All eight conference schools, plus Crandon from the Northern Lakes Conference made up the field for the boys’ side in Tomahawk. Northland Pines skipped the girls’ race, but the rest of the conference competed in Tomahawk, giving Rhinelander a very good idea of where it stands. 

Though the Hodag boys won the Tomahawk race, just as they did a season prior, there was a bit of a caveat as Lakeland rested its No. 1 runner, Charlie Ernst, due to a hip injury. Rhinelander was also out one of its normal starters as sophomore Grant Gremban rested due to an ankle. As it shook out, Rhinelander clipped Lakeland by six points on Saturday with Mosinee a distant third.

“Both of us didn’t have a varsity runner in the race. We did get them today. But, you know, they’re the heavy favorite, and we’re just going to keep doing what we do — and that’s get better and stay focused,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. 

If nothing else, last Saturday’s race further established Hodag junior Avrom Barr as the favorite for the individual conference title. Barr led virtually wire-to-wire as he covered the 5-kilometer track in a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 20.6 seconds. That was nearly 45 seconds ahead of runner-up Brayden Kelly of Lakeland. 

It marked another strong showing for Barr, who was the top finishing GNC runner the prior Tuesday at the Northland Pines Invite in Eagle River. He finished second there, 12 seconds ahead of Ernst.

“A lot of summer miles, bring the fall smiles,” Barr said after last Saturday’s race. “That’s been kind of my motto all summer long and is paying off and doing this for my community. represent the Hodags. New PR (personal record) 16:20, 15-second PR from last meet at Pines. So pretty exciting. Really pumped up for the rest of the season.”

On the girls’ side, though junior Macy Myers is chasing defending GNC champion Lindsay Kahn of Medford and Lakeland freshman Emerson Rubo, she did make history last Saturday. Myers finished third behind those two, but finished in a time of 19:30.4. That set a new 5-kilometer school record for the RHS girls’ program — beating the mark of 19:31.6 that Alayna Franson ran during the 2017 GNC meet. 

“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,” she said. “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.”

On the team side, Rhinelander’s performance on the boys’ side gives them hope that, should the cards fall right on Saturday, they can keep the heavily favored T-Birds in their sights. With Ernst out, Lakeland’s fifth and final scoring runner was Max Zeman in 33rd place. Lakeland had four other runners in the top 11. 

Rhinelander placed its first four in the top 13. Behind Barr, fellow junior Jackson Weinzatl came home fifth (17:34.4) followed by another junior, Jonathan Campbell in seventh (17:44.0). Michael Brunette was 13th (18:28.2) was 13th and senior Ayden Myers — in just his second start of the fall — was Rhinelander’s fifth runner in 24th (18:53.8).

“It’s really nice you get him back. It’s been a long grind trying to get him to run a race, and it’s just great to have him,” Laggis said of Ayden Myers. “His attitude, his spirit within the team. And so, you know, he’s an asset to us big time. It’s an asset to have him running. So really happy with that. 

“Without those guys, you know, without Aiden and Mikey doing what they do, we don’t get a win today. So really proud of the boys. We missed Grant, but it was an opportunity for other guys to step up and run hard.”

    Rhinelander’s Kara Monk leads a group of runners during the early stages of the Hatchet Invite cross country race in Tomahawk Saturday, Oct. 11. Monk finished sixth in the girls’ race as she aims for her first all-conference honor this coming Saturday when the Hodags host the conference championship at Northwood Golf Club. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

On the girls’ side, Kara Monk continued to put herself in the conversation for a first-team all-conference award — which will go to the top seven finishers this coming Saturday. Monk nearly matched her PR from earlier in the week at Pines, coming home sixth on the day at 20:37.7. 

Two others put themselves on the fringes of all-conference consideration — which will go to the top 21 on Saturday. Freshman Noelle Mayo, who missed last Tuesday’s race at Northland Pines (illness), was 23rd in Tomahawk (23:29.4) and junior Gabby Wanta was close behind in 24th (23:39.7).

“Kara Monk just continues to grow as a runner and she wasn’t far off that pace, and doing really well,” Laggis said. “Then, you know, we had Noelle and Gabby right there. The girls are coming, we got to get more depth right there, but overall, really good to getting Noelle back running today, a really good to see Gabby’s improvement and to see Monk and Macy continue to grow and improve is outstanding.”

Matthew Wood rounded out the varsity boys’ contingent on Saturday (26th, 19:07.4) while Morgan Cahee (31st, 25:26.2) and Emily Schiek (32nd, 26:02.2) rounded out the varsity squad for the Hodag girls.

Rhinelander had multiple podium finishers in the JV division. Wyatt Crowell took fourth (19:49.5) and Espen McMahon was seventh (20:51.8) on the boys’ side. Freshman Adeline Olson led three Hodag girls on the podium in the girls’ race, taking third with a personal-best time of 25:24.6. Grace Cornelius was fifth (26:38.4) and Alexa Segovia was seventh (27:24.5).

Eyes on Northwood

The attention has shifted to this coming Saturday’s GNC race, which will be held at Northwood Golf Club, in a first for the program. The team has crafted a track that with start on the 10th fairway, run through a number of holes on Northwood’s back nine, then weave through a few holes on the front nine before ending at the teeing area for the driving range.

“I think it’s going to be a conference course like no other if you want the truth,” Laggis said. “And I’m just excited to see it play out. I don’t know that it’s a PR course, but I do know that I think it’s a championship course. I think people are going to really like it.

“I think that a lot of the rollers in it have a feel, like the back end of Pines, you know, on that golf course, but there’s just some really interesting parts of that race. There’s a lot of those kind of wide open, flat stretches like you have on fairway No. 10 and then 12 and 13. But, man, then you got a couple of really nice, steep, quick hills.”

Despite some unfamiliarity with the course, home cooking has members of the squad excited.

“My coaches have given me some inside information, and it’s going to be a really good course,” Barr said. “Forecast looks like it might be a little bit rainy, but that doesn’t stop me from (focusing on) winning.”

Rhinelander appears to be Lakeland’s biggest threat at a conference repeat. Whether the Hodags catch the T-Birds on Saturday or not remains to be seen, but Laggis said his team has put itself in a position to make a run at conference and be in the hunt for a state meet berth next Friday at sectionals.

“I really feel without jinxing us, it’s going to be a two-horse race for it, I think, between us and Lakeland,” he said. “They’re the heavy favorites, but we’re definitely hungry and we’re closing (the) gap and we are getting better. And it’s been our mantra all year and we’re living up to it.”

On the girls’ side, Myers said she will keep using Kahn and Rubo to help push herself as she looks to build off of a fourth-place run at last year’s conference meet. Monk, meanwhile, will be gunning for her first all-conference honor after finishing 28th last year. 

“With Kara and Macy, you want to see how high up in that all conference type scenario they can be. And so you want to wish them the best and you get them ready for that,” Laggis said.

Saturday’s meet gets underway at 11 a.m. with the JV boys’ race. The varsity boys’ race will take place at 11:40, followed by the varsity girls at 12:15 p.m. and the JV girls at 12:50. 

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

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].