Hodags 2nd overall in Oneida County Triangular

The Rhinelander High School track team battled for intra-county bragging rights Tuesday night at Mike Webster Stadium.

The Hodag girls were the tops of the field while the Hodag boys finished second in the Oneida County Triangular.

With a unique scoring system that weighted all athletes based on the number of competitors in each event, Lakeland was determined to have the best overall score between its boys’ and girls’ teams. 

The Hodags had the best girls’ team and the Hodag boys were second behind Lakeland. Three Lakes, the other high school that is located in Oneida County, rounded out the three-team field.

That would have still been the case using a traditional 5-3-2-1 scoring format for a triangular, however Rhinelander would have had the better aggregate score between both genders, beating Lakeland 166.5-141.

“We used a scoring system that (Hodag girls’ track coach) Andy (Wyss) developed that didn’t penalize a team for being small, and I think that’s cool,” Hodag boys’ coach Rod Olson said. “Coming back to a triangular, you know, when I grew up, that’s what we had, and we were home early. I think to have a meet and then to get home early, and to bed and (be able to do) some homework is better for the athlete too. So, but real cool format, I hope we continue this Oneida County event.”

The Hodag girls scored a whopping 11 wins in the 18 events while the Hodag boys claimed three victories. Even so, Wyss said Tuesday’s meet was less about winning and more about giving plenty of athletes a chance to compete in front of the home crowd. 

“The whole reason behind it was getting into this part of the season, the opportunities get fewer and fewer, the meets get more limited, and there just isn’t as much opportunity,” he said. “We’ve been going to a lot of meets where it’s kind of the same across the board where teams are packing it in where you to meet and there’s 10, 12, 14, 16 teams at these meets and they go till 9 o’clock at night. So it was an opportunity where everybody could compete, a lot of opportunity, and we’re done by 7:30. So it was good meet.”

The Hodag girls showcased their depth, especially in the sprinting events. Rhinelander had the top seven finishers in the 100-meter dash, led by Violet Biolo (13.35 seconds), Lucy Eddy (13.44) and Mady Treder (13.44). Rhinelander had four of the top five in the 200 as well, led by Aila Bergman (27.05) and Eddy (27.44) in a 1-2 finish. 

    Rhinelander’s Lucy Eddy takes the baton from teammate Aila Bergman in the 4x200-meter relay during the Oneida County Triangular track meet at Mike Webster Stadium. It was one of 11 event wins for the Hodag girls during the meet. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Bergman, Eddy, Marsadies Williams and Biolo made up the winning quartet in the 4x200 (1:48.89) and Rhinelander claimed the 4x400 with Williams, Biolo, Teagan Clark and Alexis Smith (4:35.38).

“Just really trying to get everybody those opportunities, really feel everybody out, and in events like the 100 and 200, as we start to piece together these relays that we want to take, this is a good opportunity for like all of them to go head-to-head at once in the same conditions, the same environment, and to see, against each other, how they did,” Wyss said.

Libbey Buchmann led a 1-2 finish with Jalyn Zadnik in the shot put (36-1 1/2) and popped off another 130-plus-foot performance in winning the discus (132-11). Macy Myers led a top-five sweep in the pole vault (11-0), with Williams (8-6) and Noelle Mayo (7-0) rounding out the top three.

Williams added a win in the 300 hurdles (51.41), Millie Gruett led a 1-2 finish in the 400 (1:07.63) with Addison Fish and Taylor Dahlquist added a win in the long jump (13-11). 

Additionally, Rhinelander won the 4x800 relay with Gruett, Mayo, Gretchen Fiebke and Maddie Collins (12:06.74).

“Just kind of pretty solid all around,” Wyss said. “One of the things I was worried about with the meet this small with only three teams was that the kind of the energy would be down a little bit, but I didn’t think so. I think the energy was still good. You still want to beat Three Lakes and Lakeland. And so there’s still that competitive edge. So it was good to see out of us.”

    Rhinelander’s Avrom Barr, right, leads Lakeland’s Charlie Ernst in the 800-meter run during the Oneida County Triangular track meet at Mike Webster Stadium. Barr won the event for the Hodags. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Avrom Barr won the open 800 for the Hodag boys (2:04.67) and ran the anchor leg of the winning 4x400 relay with Paul Denis, Jackson Weinzatl and Matthew Haselton (3:34.84). Ayden Myers had Rhinelander’s other victory, claiming the pole vault (13-0).

Cyrus Leisure took second in the 200 and tied for second high jump with Evan Shoeder. That was part of a slew of runner-up finishes for the Hodags that included Barr in the 1,600, Ryley Hull in the 110 hurdles, Kamden Kostrova in the 300 hurdles, Charlie Antonuk in the pole vault, Sam Zwaard in the long jump, Landon Catlin in the triple jump, as well as both the 4x800 and 4x100 relays.

Lakeland won the lion’s share of the events. Olson said the meet was a good chance to scout the Thunderbirds, who will likely be one of several teams gunning for the GNC boys’ title later this month.

“We’ve got some things to figure out,” Olson said. “That 4x2, 400, 4x1 area, that’s the most, not to say troublesome, but tactically that's where we're really going to have to figure out what we're going to do, because we can have great 4x2 and 4x1, but then we might compromise anything in the 400. To figure out that combo is going to be our toughest thing.” 

Runner-up finishes for the Hodag girls included Fiebke in the 1,600, Emily Schiek in the 3,200, Sam Aschenbrenner in the triple jump and the 4x100 relay.

The Hodags are back in action today at the nine-team Kaukauna Invite. Both coaches said it will be an opportunity for the Hodags to field a championship-type lineup against some strong Division 1 and 2 competition. 

“I was trying to work through, is this going to be more like conference entries, more like regional entries,” Wyss said. “It’ll probably be kind of a mix between them, just kind of trying out some different things. It’s going to be going to be high level competition. So we’ll bring our best.”

In the interest of full disclosure, the River News notes the author of this story has an athlete who is a member of the RHS track team.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].