Hodag girls have eyes on more history

The Rhinelander High School girls’ track team had its most successful season on record last year, winning the Great Northern Conference title, taking second at regionals and sending seven athletes on to the WIAA state meet.

The majority of the roster that garnered all of those achievements last year returns, and head coach Andy Wyss has even higher expectations for the squad this year. 

“When you talk about the amount of girls that we lost, it wasn’t that much. So if there was ever a time to make something happen, this would be a really good year to do it,” he said.

There’s plenty of reason to be optimistic, considering six of the seven state qualifiers from last year are back — along with nine sectional qualifiers and 10 all-conference winners. 

That starts with Rhinelander’s version of the Killer Bs — Aila Bergman, Libbey Buchmann and Violet Biolo — a trio of seniors who figure to score a ton of points for the Hodags this year. 

Bergman broke her own school record in the 300-meter hurdles at state last year as she reached the podium with a fourth-place finish. She competed at state in the 100 hurdles as a sophomore and may have done so again if not for a false start in the sectional finals last May. Bergman was also part of the state-qualifying 4x400 relay team and scored a third-place finish in the long jump at conference. 

Buchmann is the reigning GNC field athlete of the year, as she won both the shot put and discus at the conference meet last May. Unfortunately for Buchmann, who took sixth at state in the discus as a sophomore and is the school record-holder in that event, she was unable to make it to La Crosse a season ago. 

    In this June 6, 2025 file photo, Rhinelander’s Violet Biolo, front, prepares to take the baton from Macy Myers, back during the 4x200-meter relay at the WIAA state track meet in La Crosse. Biolo, a senior, is one of the top returning sprinters for the Hodags while Myers, a junior, did a bit of everything for the Hodags but excelled in pole vault, scoring an eighth-place finish in Division 2 at state. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Then there’s Biolo, who was on all three state qualifying relays last year — the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 — and scored a 10th-place finish at sectionals in the 100 meters.

“I’m looking at, if we can repeat those relays and get them back (to state), that would be fantastic. I mean, that’s always difficult because you never know what other four people the other schools are going to have, but if we can if we can do that, if we can get Aila on in not one hurdle event, but two hurdle events, if we can get Libbey on in one throwing event, who knows, maybe two throwing events, now we’re talking about a big opportunity at the state level,” Wyss said. “I know that Violet, making it on in a couple relays was really, entered this offseason putting in the work to try to get there in a solo event. If we’re able to, in addition to those relays, if she can add in like the 100-meter dash, the opportunities are there. We just need to be ready to go get them.”

Junior Macy Myers also figures to have a chance to score significant points for the Hodags. She was part of the state-qualifying 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams, but she’s also a strong distance runner. She qualified for the WIAA state cross country meet last fall and finished runner-up in the 800 meters at conference last May. 

Yet Myers’s strongest event is the pole vault. She burst onto the scene last year, breaking the school record numerous times throughout the season before topping out at 11 feet, 3 inches at conference. She advanced to state in that event last year and finished eighth. 

“The fact that you could have a girl vaulting 11 feet with one year of training is incredibly impressive,” Wyss said. “The ceiling for her is the top, and there’s a real chance that if she stays healthy and does the thing she needs to do that the title of state champion is not out of reach. That’s a big deal.

“If we can keep her healthy, there’s again, more opportunity, more chances that we might be able to do more. That’ll be kind of the biggest thing with her is keeping those at bay and just keeping her success moving incrementally forward and seeing what we can do.”

While the Hodags graduated Lexi Bishop off the three relays that made it to state, the team has a young sprinting crew ready to fill the void. Junior Lucy Eddy competed in both the 4x200 and 4x400 at state last year, sophomore Ellie Cummings and junior Shyanne Hueckstaedt were both on the state 4x100 team, and sophomore Mady Treder and junior Olivia Ruetz served as alternates. 

“It’s never easy replacing anyone. We do kind of got to have that next man up mentality, and I would be a little bit more concerned about that, but I do like all of the girls that are coming back,” Wyss noted.

The Hodags figure to have depth in nearly ever discipline this year. Individually, Biolo was fifth at conference in the 200 meters and the regional runner-up in the 100.

Buchmann is joined by fellow senior Jalyn Zadnik and shop more Tatiana Vadis in the throws. They finished 1-2-6 at conference in shot put. Zadnik also made it on to sectionals in the shot put, finishing ninth. 

Rhinelander figures to be strong in pole vault. In addition to Myers, the Hodags return junior Emeline Hintz who was third at conference last year and finished seventh at sectionals. Junior Sam Aschenbrenner was eighth in the pole vault at conference last year. 

In the horizontal jumps, Treder placed fourth at conference and fifth at regionals in the triple jump while sophomore Addison Fish was seventh in both the long and triple jump at both conference and regionals. 

In distance, junior Kara Monk was sixth at both conference and sectionals in the 3,200 meters, and is coming off a breakout cross country campaign where she finished sixth at the conference meet and 12th at sectionals. Sophomore Gretchen Fiebke also returns after taking eighth in the 800 at regionals.

“When you have a year of varsity track and field under your belt, usually that sophomore year is when you see the big jumps,” Wyss said. “So if we can have girls like Ellie Cummings and Mady Treder, Addison Fish, Gretchen Fiebke, get some of those girls to take that leap, sophomore year, that would be fantastic, because that’ll be a good group moving forward.”

In addition to Bishop, the Hodags lost two other sectional qualifiers to graduation in high jumper Callie Hoerchler and hurdles Averie West. The team also lost some depth from its distance department with the graduation of Brynn Teter and Luna Grage. 

Regardless, after winning last year’s conference title by 31 points over Lakeland, Wyss said he’s optimistic about the team’s chances at a repeat. If the Hodags can do that, odds are they’ll have a good shot winning the regional title as well — considering all eight GNC schools will join Colby for a nine-team regional May 26 in Medford. 

“If we have a good showing at conference, I anticipate a good showing at regionals, which is something that the girls team hasn’t done,” he said. “We won conference for the first time in school history last year, and so being able to bring back these seniors and continue that, and hopefully we can come out with our first regional title in school history. Then from there, it’s how many can we get on all the way.”

Regardless, Wyss said a number of athletes have big goals for the season, looking to build off of last season’s performance. 

“I kind of think they’ve got that plan in their head too,” he said. “Like, we have to go through the steps. We have to grind out the season. We have to make sure we’re healthy. But (it’s the mentality that) ‘I was at state last year, and that’s where I’m going to be at the end of this year too.’ If we can come in with that mindset that that’s where the season’s going to end, that’s going to be a good thing for us.” 

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].