Hodag girls’ track dominates at Marathon

The Rhinelander High School girls’ track team had a strong performance on Thursday, April 16, winning seven of 18 events, as it cruised to the team title in the eight-team Marathon Invite.

The Hodag boys, despite not finding the winner’s circle, were a close third in their division, finishing only 22 markers behind the hosting Red Raiders and four points behind runner-up Edgar. 

The highlight of the night was senior Libbey Buchmann who, on her 18th birthday, reset her own school record in the discus. She popped off a throw of 135 feet, 1 inch, which broke her previous best throw of 134-9 set back in May 2024. Buchmann had another throw in excess of 130 feet during the event, and added a runner-up finish in the shot put (36-4 1/2).

“Coach (Aaron) Kraemer said that he could see it coming. She was in a different mood today, been looking good in practice,” Hodag girls’ coach Andy Wyss said. “He could kind of sense that something was brewing. Today’s her birthday also, so that was exciting for her to have that school record again, reestablish it on her birthday. That’s a treat.”

Three Hodags had a role in two wins each, led by senior Aila Bergman, who dominated the hurdle events. She won the 100 hurdles (16.38) by more than a second over and then cruised to a nearly three-second win in the 300 hurdles (48.82). 

“Aila was in the open events on Tuesday, so we put her back into the hurdles on today and (she) didn’t get entered with any seed time,” Wyss said. “So she was in heats kind of running all by herself, which, on one hand, she didn’t have any competition, but on the other hand, she could really focus on her race and how she was running. So it kind of worked out for the best.”

Macy Myers claimed the pole vault for the Hodags (10-0) and Kara Monk was tops in the 3,200 (12:34.96). The juniors were both on the winning 4x800 team earlier in the day with fellow junior Lucy Eddy and senior Millie Gruett (10:31.54).

    Rhinelander’s Marsadies Williams takes off in the long jump during the Marathon Invitational track meet in Marathon Thursday, April 16. Williams won the event with a personal-best leap of 16 feet, 10 inches. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander added a 1-2 finish in the long jump as both freshman Marsadies Williams (16-10) and junior Alexis Smith (16-0 3/4) both broke the 16-foot mark in the event. 

“For me, as the jumps coach, that is super exciting. I don’t know if I’ve ever had two 16-foot jumpers in the same meet like that. They’re running real fast. They were in real good moods at that time and, super exciting,” Wyss said.

The Hodag boys had four runner-up finishes. Sam Zwaard was second in the 200 meters (24.41), Avrom Barr took second in the 3,200 (10:39.83), Ryley Hull was second in the 300 hurdles (45.08) and the Hodags were runners-up in the 4x800 with Dean Gillingham, Paul Denis, Jackson Weinzatl and Barr (8:47.96).

    Rhinelander’s Dean Gillingham lead the pack in the boys’ 4x800-meter relay during the Marathon Invitational track meet in Marathon Thursday, April 16. The Hodags finished second in the race, one of four runner-up finishes for the Hodag boys in the meet. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

“I think the 200s were real good for the boys. Avrom had a decent night,” Hodag boys’ coach Rod Olson said. “We had a lot of good performances. Again we mixed the team up and mixed some relays up. We wanted to run a couple of what we would consider A-level events here and there kind of sprinkle that amongst all of the competitors.”

Violet Biolo was runner-up in the 100, 200 and on the 4x200 relay with Shyanne Hueckstaedt, Eddy and Mady Treder. Olivia Ruetz added a runner-up finish in the 400, Williams took third in the 100, Jalyn Zadnik was third in the shot put and the Hodags took third in the 4x100 relay. Smith added a fifth-place showing in the 300 hurdles and Treder was fifth in the long jump.

On the boys’ side, Jonathan Campbell (800), Amos Bergman (300 hurdles) and Ayden Myers (pole vault) all scored third-place finishes, along with the 4x100 relay. Hull added a fourth-place run in the 110 hurdles, Konner Bex was fourth in the 400 and Matthew Haselton was fourth in the triple jump. Evan Shoeder was fourth in the 200 and fifth in the high jump. The Hodags also got fifth-place finishes from Cyrus Leisure in the 100, Renin Craig in the 400, Wyatt Crowell in the 800, Gillingham in the 1,600 and Zwaard in the long jump. 

Originally scheduled for Friday, the meet was moved ahead a day in anticipation of Friday’s severe weather. The athletes were met with some of the warmest conditions of the heat, with a race-time temp in the upper 70s.

“I think we’re not quite acclimated for going from 40s to 75. More gradual would have helped. I think the heat, that was a little difficult to get the kids going,” coach Olson noted.

The Hodags are back in action with a pair of meets this week. The team will compete in the Wausau West Outdoor this afternoon and will travel to Eagle River on Friday for the Eagle Relays hosted by Northland Pines. 

“Maybe it’ll be a little bit more limited on Tuesday and then everybody, probably all hands on deck for the Eagle Relays on Friday,” Wyss said. “It’ll be another good week where everybody gets to compete, I think.”

In the interest of full disclosure, the River News notes 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].