Hodag track squad opts to rest some top athletes at Lakeland

MINOCQUA — Despite fielding far from their strongest lineups, both the Rhinelander High School boys’ and girls’ track squads were competitive Tuesday in the 11-team Lakeland Invite in Minocqua. 

The Hodag girls took third overall while the Hodag boys came in fourth on a chilly afternoon at IncredibleBank Field. While the cold conditions played some role in the Hodags entering the day with an altered lineup, part of it was also by design in the midst of four straight weeks of two meets a week.

“I guess you could maybe call it load management,” Hodag girls’ coach Andy Wyss said. “We went pretty hard (last) Friday (at Kaukauna). We got another meet coming up on Friday. So especially with that group, we went a little lighter today. We went single events for a lot of them. Then those ones that maybe didn’t get to compete on Friday, we tried to give them a little more opportunity. 

“We’re heading into more crucial part of the season, so we want to make sure everybody’s healthy,” boys’ coach Rod Olson added. “Likewise with the hurdlers, I don’t really like to run the hurdlers and the real cold because of the extreme stretch, those muscles are gonna get over the hurdles.”

There were still some highlights to be had on the night as the Hodag girls claimed three victories and the Hodag boys scored two wins. 

Senior Aila Bergman had only one event Tuesday but made the most of it, claiming the triple jump with a personal-best leap of 34 feet, 9 1/2 inches. According to Athletic.net, that mark ranks inside the top 50 performances overall in the state this season.

“I wanted to see what she was able to do without anything else on her plate,” Wyss noted. “I think that’s probably the biggest thing right now is that she can physically manage multiple events, but being able to kind of mentally manage them all and hit the warm-ups for all of them and check in for all of them and that kind of stuff, we need to be able to work through that. This was just kind of see, without other things on our mind and all you have to do is jump, how does it go? And clearly went well.”

    Rhinelander’s Libbey Buchmann throws the disc during the Lakeland Invite track meet in Minocqua Tuesday, May 5. Buchmann finished second in the event and won the shot put for the Hodags. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

On the girls’ side, Libbey Buchmann led a 1-2-3 finish in the shot put with a personal-best show of 37-7, which sits in the top 26 statewide. Jalyn Zadnik was second in the event (33-6 1/2) and Sam Aschenbrenner took third (31-3 1/2). Buchmann had an off night, by her standards, in the discus. A throw of 116-3 was only good enough for second there, less than a foot behind Medford’s Rivalee Stokes. 

“I think she has a goal of either a school record has got a fall or a personal record has to fall. And so, even though the disc, she’s probably upset about, still came away with a PR (in shot put),” Wyss said. “So she’s on goal and, if we’re following suit, we should have a school record on Friday.”

Macy Myers led a 1-3 finish in pole vault for the Hodags. She cleared 10-6 for the win while Marsadies Williams was third, matching her personal best at 8-6. 

Distance shined for the Hodag boys on Tuesday. Sophomore Dean Gillingham took the lead with roughly 600 meters remaining in the 1,600 and claimed the win there. He cracked the five-minute barrier for the first time, clocking in at 4 minutes, 54.97 seconds.

Similarly, Avrom Barr had a significant PR in the 3,200. He ran from the front virtually the entire race and broke free from Lakeland’s Charlie Ernst over the final 400 as he came home in 10:03.94.

“The distance crew definitely showed their resilience and their toughness there,” coach Olson said. “That’s an outstanding unit that, for the most part, they train outside a lot. They create that much more body warmth and they’re more used to it. So the cold, I don’t want to say it affected them, but, they certainly ran well, both boys and girls, with the cold and the distance events. Avrom had a commanding race and then, you know, the two-mile and Jackson (Weinzatl) was not too far behind. They did well.”

The Hodag girls finished 28 points behind Northland Pines for the win, much of that gap stemming from two events, the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. Botched exchanges in both of those races led to disqualifications in events Rhinelander was favored to win. Wyss chalked it up to learning moments as the team tries to work out the kinks prior to championship season.

“Those have to be learning moments, especially now when it’s looking like these are going to be our teams, we need to be able to move to stick well with this group,” he said. “We know we need work and at least that’s instant feedback to tell us that we got work to do.”

Williams added a third-place finish for the Hodags in the 100 hurdles (18.66). Kara Monk was fourth in the 1,600 (5:57.03). Freshman Noelle Mayo dropped more than 24 seconds off her personal best in the 3,200 in a fourth-place showing (13:38.57). Addie Olson took fifth in the 300 hurdles (1:03.99), Olivia Ruetz was fifth in the long jump (13-4) and the Hodags were fifth in the 4x800 with Maddie Collins, Hope Young, Addy Currie and Clara Pudlowski (13:50.55).

Individually on the boys’ side, Kamden Kostrova came home fourth in the 300 hurdles (47.02), Weinzatl was fourth in the 3,200 (10:50.24), Myles Eagleson was fourth in the long jump (17-5) and Eric Parish scored fifth in the discus (119-10).

Rhinelander took third in the 4x100 (48.56) with the group of Landon Catlin, Knox Fleming, Cade Goffe and Josh Haselton. Rhinelander was fourth in the 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800 relays. 

Up next for the squad is the annual Otto Bacher Invite tonight at Jay Stadium in Merrill. Six of the eight Great Northern Conference teams will be in the 12-team field as the Hodags will use the event as another key dress rehearsal ahead of the conference and regional meets. 

“We’ll be running some A-type lineups for that meet, and look forward to it,” coach Olson said. “It’s one of the highlight meets of the season. There’s always just a great atmosphere there, it’s a good facility and our kids are looking forward to it.”

In the interest of full disclosure, the River News notes 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].