Hodag track gets elite competition at indoor state

The Rhinelander High School boys’ and girls’ track team brought a handful of their top athletes to Whitewater Saturday, April 4 for the Wisconsin Track Coaches Association (WISTCA) Indoor State Championships.

The Hodag girls finished tied for 53rd in the event with 11 entries while the Hodag boys did not score a point with their five entries.

Athletes earned their way into the meet either as former WIAA state track qualifiers, or by obtaining pre-determined standards in events prior to the competition. 

Wyss said, though the Hodags struggled to score points against some of the top Division 1, 2 and 3 athletes in the state, the competition was valuable for those who went. 

“It’s the closest meet that emulates what going to the state meet is like — the actual outdoor state meet,” he said. “It gives those athletes, that have that potential to be at the state, meet the opportunity to kind of feel what that competition is like. 

“I would say the theme on the day was everybody did well. Everybody did what they were supposed to do. We ran decent times, hit decent marks, but I think they were all a little hungry. They wish they could have done a little better. I think that was kind of the theme across the board.”

Rhinelander’s only points came in the girls’ pole vault where junior Emeline Hintz cleared a personal-best height of 10 feet, 6 inches, and tied for eighth overall. Fellow junior, and 2025 state qualifier, Macy Myers was 11th in the event, bowing out after clearing 10 feet.

“The vault crew, they’re a little dinged up. They all vaulted well. Emeline scored for us, our lone point-scorer on the day and she was disappointed that she didn’t get 11 (feet),” Wyss said. “That’s the type of athletes we’re taking down there, the ones that aren’t satisfied with just getting eighth place. It’s, ‘I got to be better.’ So that’s good. Keeps them hungry.”

Junior Aila Bergman came home 15th in the 60-meter hurdles as her qualifying time of 9.79 seconds missed qualifying for the finals by roughly two tenths of a second. 

“It was a decent time. She had ran better last year, and if she had repeated that time, she would have been in the finals again this year,” Wyss said. “So just kind of unfortunate. Talking with coach (Rod) Olson a little bit, still trying to get confidence up. We’re just a little bit long between the hurdles and striding between the hurdles. She doesn’t need to because she’s got the speed.” 

Macy Myers added a 20th-place run in the 800 meters (2:29.96), senior Violet Biolo was 45th in the 60 meters (8.36) and junior Kara Monk took 53rd in the 1,600 (5:46.71). 

On the field event side, seniors Libbey Buchmann (34-0 3/4) and Jalyn Zadnik (32-10 3/4) were 23rd and 27th in the shot put, while freshman Marsadies Williams was 27th in the long jump (15-6 1/2).

Rhinelander came home 11th in the girls’ 4x400 relay with the team of Bergman, sophomore Ellie Cummings, Monk and junior Lucy Eddy (4:21.58) and finished 25th in the 4x200 relay with junior Shyanne Hueckstaedt, Cummings, junior Olivia Ruetz and Biolo (1:55.78).

“Those might not be the relays (we run in the postseason), or the right order, and we’re still kind of figuring those things out, but it’s a good group and good opportunity for them to pass the stick together,” Wyss said. “We kind of worked a little bit earlier this week on that and just fun to see. I love the relays. The relays are one of the most fun things to watch. When they’re moving and working as a team and passing the baton together, it’s fun.”

On the boys’ side, Saturday’s competition marked the first runs of the season for seniors Ben Olson, Cyrus Leisure and Evan Shoeder. Ben Olson, senior Sam Zwaard, sophomore Matthew Haselton and Leisure were 16th in the 4x200 (1:37.11) while Ben Olson, Zwaard, Haselton and Shoeder came home 15th in the 4x400 (3:45.69).

“We got Cyrus out in the 4x2, and he ran great, did really well on that,” boys’ coach Rod Olson noted. “Good confidence builder for all the guys. Cyrus ran good. This was Ben’s first opportunity, Evan’s first opportunity. We had some seniors that had their first indoor meet me at a pretty high-profile meet, but I thought that we performed well.”

Senior Ayden Myers was 13th in the pole vault, clearing 12-6. Senior Myles Eagleson took part in both the long and triple jump. He finished 46th in the triple jump (36-4) but failed to get in a qualifying jump in his three preliminary long jump attempts.

Like Wyss, coach Olson said it was a valuable learning experience for the athletes who competed.

“From learning, and experience and getting against some competition where you’re basically neck and neck with all five or six guys in your heat … it pushes you,” he said. “I think one of the best things about coming to these meets with high-end competition, is it fuels your training for the rest of the season.”

Point Indoor Distance Carnival

    Rhinelander’s Avrom Barr leads a pack of runners in the 1,600 meters in the Point Indoor Distance Carnival as UW-Stevens Point Saturday, April 4. Barr finished 14th in the race, the Hodags best finish in the meet. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

The Hodags also took 11 of its distance runners to Stevens Point last Saturday for the Point Indoor Distance Carnival at UW-Stevens Point. 

As the name suggests, the event featured only distance races, with athletes having the choice of competing in either the 800, 1,600 or 3,200 meters. 

More than 30 schools took part in the event and Wyss said, much like indoor state, the event gave athletes a chance to race with runners of similar speed.

“When you’re in these heats, everybody else is as fast as you,” he said. “At Point, unlike indoor state where everybody’s at kind of a state level qualifying time, even if you’re not a state-level runner, your heat is going to be filled with people just like you, and you’re going to have to figure out how to navigate other people and race other people. That’s just really valuable experience at this point in the season.”

On the boys’ side, sophomore Paul Denis won his heat of the 800 meters in a photo finish and finished 25th overall with a time of 2:14.38. He finished just ahead of teammates Jackson Weinzatl (39th, 2:14.85) and Jonathan Campbell (47th, 2:16.29), who ran in another heat. 

Junior Avrom Barr scored the best finish of the night, coming home 14th in the 1,600 (4:49.46) while junior Michael Brunette took 39th in the 3,200 (12:14.57).

Wyatt Crowell (75th, 2:23.54) and Konner Bex (87th, 2:26.06) also competed in the 800 while Logan Creapeau was 93rd in the 1,600 (5:53.01).

On the girls’ side, Noelle Mayo came home 18th in the freshman 1,600 (6:29.62), sophomore Gretchen Fiebke was 77th in the 800 (3:04.35) and freshman Adeline Olson was 99th in the 800 (3:32.88).

Up next

The final scheduled indoor meet of the season takes place this afternoon as the Hodag boys travel to Wausau for the Wausau West Indoor. The Hodag girls raced in Wausau yesterday in a meet that concluded after press time for today’s edition. 

Rhinelander is slated to host the Hodag Hybrid meet Tuesday, with running events scheduled to take place outside at Mike Webster Stadium and the majority of field events to be held in the Hodag Dome.

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 track team.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].