Hodag gymnasts eye potential state berths as sectional meet

The Rhinelander High School gymnastics team has sent several gymnasts to the WIAA individual state meet over the years, and will have a chance to do so again tonight during a Division 2 sectional meet in Antigo.

However, should the cards fall into place for the Hodags, the team has an opportunity to do something it hasn’t done in more than two decades. 

The top two teams from tonight’s sectional will advance to the team portion of the WIAA state meet Friday, March 6 in Wisconsin Rapids. Rhinelander hasn’t competed in that portion of the state meet since 2005. 

Coming in off a season-high performance of 126.8 points in its Great Northern Conference Small Division championship victory last Saturday in Minocqua, the latter objective isn’t out of the realm of possibility as the Hodags attempt to qualify as a team for the seventh time in school history. 

“Team’s looking like a possibility,” Hodag coach Kristina Aschenbrenner said following the conference meet. “So, I hope we can just go in there and have the same confidence that we had today. And we’ll see what happens.”

The numbers bare out Aschenbrenner’s assertion. There are eight teams competing in tonight’s sectional. The field for tonight’s meet will include four of the five GNC Small schools — Rhinelander, Lakeland, Mosinee and host Antigo — along with Kaukauna, Waupun, Valders and Markesean.

According to scoring database ScoreFlippers, it could be up to a four-way fight for the two team qualifying spots, and which team is the favorite depends on which metric is used.

In regard to overall season average, Waupun leads the way with a 123.34, followed by Valders at 121.96 and Rhinelander at 120.78. Kaukauna only has a season average of 112.606, but has posted its three best scores over the last three meets. The Galloping Ghosts’ average of 124.383 in that span is the best of any team in the field.

When it comes to a team’s three best meets of the season, Rhinelander had the edge at 125.05, followed by Kaukauna, Valders (124.308) and Waupun (124.158).

Rhinelander has seen two of these teams in competition. The Hodags scored a 122.85 and edged Valders by 0.35 points when the teams competed at the Julie Langseth Memorial in Antigo Jan. 31. 

Waupun scored a 125.475 a week later when it joined Rhinelander at the Marshfield Invite. The Hodags scored only a 111.825 in that meet, but had a couple of starters either limited or scratched from the lineup that day. 

“They’re a very strong team,” Aschenbrenner said of Waupun following the meet in Marshfield Feb. 7. “We knew that they would do well.”

While team state qualification would be icing on the cake, the Hodags are looking for individual state qualifiers. The top five and ties in each event as well as the individual all-around will qualify for the individual portion of the state meet March 7. 

    Rhinelander’s Alexis Smith vaults during the Great Northern Conference gymnastics meet in Minocqua Saturday, Feb. 21. Smith, a former state qualifier on vault, currently ranks third in the sectional with an average score of 8.436 in the event. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Junior Alexis Smith is the only gymnast on the roster with previous state meet experience, qualifying on the vault as a freshman two years ago. She’s in contention to make it again in that event as her average score of 8.436 sits third among gymnasts in the field. Additionally, Smith has the sixth-best average on floor exercise (8.28).

Junior Emeline Hintz has a chance to be Rhinelander’s first all-around state qualifier since Elle Spiegelhoff in 2013. Her average score of 31.79 is currently fourth-best in the field. She’s also in contention to qualify in at least three of the four individual events, with the third-best average on balance beam (7.985), the fourth-best average on floor exercise (8.395) and the sixth-best average on vault (8.37). 

Sophomore Addison Fish could also be a long shot on the vault, with the 10th-best average in the field (8.17). 

“Sectionals, we think we’ll have some places, individually. We just have some girls really strong in specific events,” Aschenbrenner said. 

As for the mentality going into tonight, Aschenbrenner said it’s a matter of trying to get everything to line up, like it did last Saturday and letting the chips fall where they may.

“We’ve been tweaking our routines. We’ve been working with different lineups and trying to do some different mental exercises to really be able to hit five out of five routines in four events,” she said. “I think we’ve worked our, ourselves to the point where I think we’re pretty solid, and we can do that.”

Tonight’s meet gets underway at 5 p.m. at Antigo High School’s Sheldon Fieldhouse.  

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].