RHS/Pines Alpine ski team competes at Granite Peak

The Rhinelander/Northland Pines boys’ Alpine ski team likely saw its chance for a Northern Conference title disappear Thursday, Feb. 5.

The Hodags were outscored in giant slalom and Super G as they finished second behind Wausau United in the fourth Northern meet of the season at Granite Peak in Wausau. 

Rhinelander entered the meet trailing Wausau by two points in the team standings, and controlled its own destiny if it won the final two meets. But Wausau used its home hill to its advantage Thursday and, with the win, effectively clinched the conference title — barring a major disaster in the conference finale.

“Wausau was able to set those courses last night, and they practiced every one of them, and then reset them exactly today, and you could tell there was already ruts there, from the night before,” Hodag coach Rod Olson said. “In high school, unfortunately, the host gets to pick their course setter. In all other races — state, US Ski and Snowboard and FIS racing — nobody from your home hill can set. Basically, the course setters get drawn from a pool. But that’s what it is. You can do that. We can do it at our race. We just don’t have the luxury of practicing, you know, but once a week. We can’t run it and reset it the next day.”

A difficult slalom set actually worked against Wausau, as three of its skiers had mishaps and the Hodags held a 35-44 lead after the first event. However the Hodags had their own issues in giant slalom as Wausau took a commanding lead and the Wausau edged Rhinelander 21-26 in Super G to finish off the day.

“In GS, we just dropped the ball. We lost, Wyler (Koput) and Eli (Repenshek) in that race. So that hurts us. Two of our top four were out. So that kind of put us backwards. And Wausau skied that very well,” coach Olson said.

Senior Ben Olson was the runner-up individually on the day. He recorded third-place finishes in all three events and overcame a hair-raising moment near the end of the Super G run when he caught air and lost his balance. He was able to stay on his skis and finish the race. The result vaulted Olson up to third in the overall Northern Conference standings.

“Ben had an OK run. He kind of throttled back. He needs an overall (finish),” coach Olson said. “The first two races, he wasn’t able to get an overall score. So they score best three (races) overall, so he too kind of held back. In Super G, he had a mishap. He was way in lead but had a mishap, so I think he got third all day long.”

Rhinelander senior Holden Schmitz scored his best finish of the season, coming home eighth on the day. Repenshek’s crash in giant slalom relegated him to 12th on the day despite top-five finishes in both slalom and Super G. 

Henry Schmitz was 20th, Koput finished 21st, Ryley Hull was 28th and Will Johnson finished 29th.

In girls’ skiing the Hodags got a shot in the arm that could put them back in the running to qualify for state. Senior Claire Yunkers, the twin sister of Hodag skier Karlie Yunkers, competed for the first time this season. That gave the Hodags the requisite four competitors to field a team score. Rhinelander had been skiing short since injuries to Jessica Linn and Lindsey Hoerchler at the start of the conference season. 

Rhinelander finished third on the day as a result and moved into a tie for third with Rice Lake in the overall team standings. The top three teams in the conference qualify for this coming weekend’s WIARA state meet in La Crosse. 

“Claire Yunkers, her sister talked her into coming out for the team because we needed a fourth score. And Claire did great,” coach Olson said. “She was a snowboarder. She’s been skiing for like two weeks now, and she made all of her runs. You know, we were afraid she wouldn’t go in the right directions, but really proud of her stepping up and not crashing, not DQing. That was awesome.”

Lucy Eddy had the best finish of the day for the Hodags in 12th, followed by Karlie Yunkers in 13th, Aila Bergman in 18th and Carlie Yunkers in 22nd. Bergman was in position for a top-10 finish but crashed in Super G.

“For the girls, we had a Super G course that had a real big bump in it. It took out seven boys. There was a cross rut from the slalom course. And we had like seven or eight racers going to the net. Aila was one of them. She was the very first down for Super G. And it ended up breaking her ski,” coach Olson noted. 

    Rhinelander’s Soren Dumar competes in boarder slalom during a WIARA Northern Conference race at Granite Peak in Wausau Thursday, Feb. 5. Dumar won the boys’ snowboarding competition on Thursday and the Hodag boys took first place in the team standings. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Hodag boys edged Wausau 34-40 for the win in the snowboarding competition. Senior Soren Dumar won boardercross and finished second in slalom to take the overall title. Marshal Durkee wound up third on the day, Kamden Kostrova was sixth and Ayden Myers finished seventh. 

“Soren went down on his first run, and then he did OK on the second run, but I think he still was second,” coach Olson said. “Marshal broke another board. So he’s without a board right now. We found one, a member that graduated that’s going to let him use his for state. So, of course, with that board break and he had a mishap as well. Ayden did well and Kamden did decent too. So they’re not doing bad, but it wasn’t what I would call their day.”

Sydney Sarkauskas, the lone girls’ snowboarder on the team, did not compete Thursday. 

The Hodags were set to finish the Northern Conference season Saturday at Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich. The event wrapped up prior to deadline for today’s edition. The race finalized the conference standings and determined which teams and individuals from the Northern Conference will compete at the WIARA state meet in La Crosse Feb. 14-16. 

Pick up the Friday, Feb. 13 edition of the River News for a recap of the Ski Brule meet and a preview of the state championships.