RHS/Pines boys’ skiers, snowboarders claim Mt. Ashwabay meet

The Rhinelander/Northland Pines boys’ Alpine ski team kept its Northern Conference title hopes alive Monday as it took two of three events and defeated Wausau United for first place at Mt. Ashwabay.

The Hodags had three of the top four skiers on the day, led by Rhinelander senior Ben Olson, who swept his way to his first individual win of the season. The Hodags trailed Wausau United by nine points after slalom, but took the lead after giant slalom and slammed the door with a dominant Super G run where it placed four in the top seven to win the day by 37 points overall. 

Despite temperatures barely warm enough to conduct the race, coach Rod Olson said his boys’ squad put together its strongest showing of the season so far. 

“That was great having them in a group anywhere first through fourth, those three, all day,” he said. “Anytime we can get a clump of scores that are all close, we’re gonna have a good team score. Anything under top 10 and in a clump, that’s good. It’s kind of takeaway points too. You push other people out. 

“I was real proud of them. (The weather) was adverse. So there’s that weighing on your mind. Stuff’s freezing, but they skied well. They really mentally had their game together today.”

Ben Olson finally made it through all three races cleanly as he picked up his first overall win of the season. He won slalom by 0.85 seconds, giant slalom by 0.34 seconds and Super G by 0.71 seconds to sweep the day and beat Wausau’s Alber Hayek by four points for the overall title.

Wyler Koput finished third overall for the Hodags. The Rhinelander sophomore was second in Super G and third in giant slalom. Northland Pines junior Eli Repenshek was fourth in all three events and finished fourth overall.

“We didn’t have to hold back. We could like go back to racing instead of finishing, and that really helps the kids’ mindset,” said coach Olson, who had been critical of some of the course setups during the first two Northern Conference events of the season. “This was better for every athlete, you know, to be able to just go and throw their arcs down.”

Holden Schmitz, highlighted by a seventh-place fun in Super G, took 16th overall on the day. Henry Schmitz was 21st, Charlie Johnson was 26th and Ryley Hull finished 28th.

The Hodag girls finished third on the day, despite being down to three healthy skiers and taking a 100-point penalty per event. Lucy Eddy was ninth overall on the day thanks to top-10 finishes in giant slalom (ninth) and Super G (eighth). Aila Bergman had the best individual run, placing sixth in Super G, as she finished 10th on the day. Karlie Yunkers came home 13th, highlighted by a 10th-place run in giant slalom.

“They did they did pretty well too,” coach Olson noted. “Lucy had a consistent day, Aila was consistent. Karlie had a near catastrophe in Super G, but was able to get in there. She got down in probably a foot deep snow, but somehow, made it out.”

Soren Dumar and Sydney Sarkauskas swept boardercross, slalom and giant slalom as competitions as they won the boys’ and girls’ snowboarding competitions. Rhinelander’s boys scored four to the top five spots with Kamden Kostrova taking second, Marshal Durkee placing fourth and Ayden Myers taking fifth. Coach Olson said the Hodags still fared well as a team, despite a few more mishaps than normal. 

“Overall, we had more slip ups on the boarder side today than we had last week,” he said.

In middle school action Cameron Olson, Colin Butler and Vaun Koput went 1-2-4 in boys’ skiing while Riley Butler took first in Super G and second in slalom as she finished sixth overall in girls’ skiing.

The focus coming down the stretch will be the race for the Northern Conference boys’ skiing title. Rhinelander/Northland Pines sits two points behind Wausau with two races to go, but can still control its own destiny if it wins the final two meets of the season. The Hodags were schedule to host Round 4 Saturday at Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich., but coach Olson said that event has been moved to the conference championship event, Saturday, Feb. 7, due to this weekend’s bitterly cold forecast. 

A non-league invite at Snow River for Jan. 27 has also been nixed, according to Olson. That means the next time the Hodags will race will be Thursday, Feb. 5 at Granite Peak in Wausau.

“We got a couple of good hills. We like racing at Granite Peak, and of course, our home course. I’m excited about it,” coach Olson said. “I told them, that three races is really enough to mix it up. We’re gonna try what we can do to try and win that title, and if that doesn’t happen, then we’re gonna make sure we make it hard for the other ones to do it.”

Meanwhile, Olson said a few of his snowboarders may look to compete in a USASA event at Alpine Valley in the southeastern portion of the state Jan. 31 prior to heading to La Crosse for a training event at the venue for next month’s WIARA state championships.

Dumar scored a runner-up finish in boardercross and was third in slalom, Durkee took fifth in giant slalom and Sarkauskas was fifth in boardercross and fourth in slalom during the last USASA race held Jan. 10 and 11 at Alpine Valley.

“That USASA series is at Alpine Valley, so most of those Milwaukee schools run that. I was really happy to see where we stacked up against some of those state competitors. So that’s very promising as well,” coach Olson said.