Hodag girls claim Otto Bacher title

MERRILL — The Rhinelander High School girls’ track team made a statement Friday that it has every intention of defending its Great Northern Conference championship next week.

The Hodags won six events, added six runner-up finishes and won the Otto Bacher Invitational track meet in Merrill. 

Rhinelander had 20 top-five finishes in all as it pulled away late to defeat Tomahawk by 18 1/2 points for the title. With seven of the eight GNC schools attending Friday’s meet, the night served as a key dress rehearsal prior to the conference meet at Mike Webster Stadium a week from tonight. 

“That’s still that not the perfect lineup yet, but it was a good shot at what we’re capable of,” Hodag girls’ track coach Andy Wyss said. “It was honestly pretty tight for a lot of it, but then, when those last few events start to roll in, and you see some separation, it’s a good feeling.”

Defending the conference title seems like it will be a taller order for the Hodag boys who finished third on Friday. Lakeland, which finished 36 1/2 points ahead of Rhinelander in the runner-up spot, appears to be a chief threat to the Hodags’ crown, as does Northland Pines — the lone GNC school not in the field on Friday. 

“As much strategy as we’re going to come up with, I think we’re still gonna be kind of guessing how we’re gonna put something together, who will run what, where,” Hodag boys’ coach Rod Olson said. “It’s tough to figure out, but it’s exciting. It makes coaching a lot of fun.”

The Hodag girls rode the strength of a trio of 1-2 finishes to the meet win, including a 1-2-3 effort from Libbey Buchmann (37 feet, 4 1/2 inches), Jalyn Zadnik (33-10 3/4) and Sam Aschenbrenner (31-11) in the shot put. 

    Rhinelander’s Aila Bergman competes in the 300-meter hurdles during the Otto Bacher Invitational track meet in Merrill Friday, May 8. Bergman and teammate Marsadies Williams went 1-2 in the event for the Hodags. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander also went 1-2 in the pole vault with Macy Myers (11-0) and Emeline Hintz (9-6) as well as the 300 hurdles with Aila Bergman (46.66 seconds) and Marsadies Williams (50.00).

“In a meet where the points are spread around more when you have more teams, if you can come away with those top places, and a lot of them, it really does add up,” Wyss said. “So to be to meet this big — there’s a Division 1 school here and some really good competitions, some of our conference opponents — and to go, 1-2-3 in the shot, 1-2 in the vault, 1-2 in the hurdles, that should speak well to our depth.”

Aila Bergman also cruised to the win in the 100 hurdles (16.40), winning that by nearly nine-tenths of a second over runner-up Addison Stumpner of Wausau East. Buchmann scored a win in the discus (122-10), and the Hodags added a convincing win in the 4x100 with the squad of Shyanne Hueckstaedt, Williams, Olivia Ruetz and Violet Biolo (51.75).

“Olivia had to fill in and did that admirably moving the, getting the sick and moving it around, and ran a good time with that group,” Wyss said, noting that Lucy Eddy was scratched from the lineup due to illness. “Tonight was kind of a test with Marsadies to see if being able to run that 4x1 and give us give us a good leg on that and then turn around immediately and run a 300 hurdles, and then she ended up running a PR time in that.”

Myers added a runner-up finish in the 800 meters (2:26.49) and was part of a runner-up showing in the 4x400 with Ruetz, Bergman and Alexis Smith, who filled in for Eddy. (4:21.73). 

Biolo added a third-place finish in the 200 (27.66) and made the finals in the 100-meter dash, taking fifth (13.54). Kara Monk was third in the 3,200 (12:37.93). Millie Gruett took fifth in the 800 (2:39.07), and the Hodags were fifth in both the 4x200 and 4x800 relays. 

“We’re kind of seeing it across the board. Macy hitting that 800 time, the 4x4 times they were running, some of our distance times, we’re seeing those time drops that are starting to hit,” Wyss said. “This is right around when we see that. We got a couple more weeks of work and then when we should be seeing it again. Everything’s kind of happening according to schedule, which is fantastic.”

    Rhinelander’s Avrom Barr races Lakeland’s Charlie Ernst in the 1,600-meter run during the Otto Bacher Invitational track meet in Merrill Friday, May 8. Barr won the event for the Hodags. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

For the second meet in a row, Avrom Barr dueled with Lakeland’s Charlie Ernst — this time around in the 1,600 meters. Similar to the 3,200 in Minocqua on May 5, Barr opened things up over the final eighth of the race and pulled away to victory (4:35.33), one of just two on the night for the Hodags. Ayden Myers added a win in the boys’ pole vault (12-6). 

Rhinelander had some close calls elsewhere. Landon Catlin was edged at the finish line by Lakeland’s Mason Schettino in the 4x100 relay as the Hodags had to settle for second with a squad that also included Ben Olson, Sam Zwaard and Cyrus Leisure (44.75). The Hodags were first to the finish line in the 4x200, but were disqualified due to a mistimed handoff that occurred outside the exchange zone. 

“We had good times in the boys 4x1, 4x2 and the 4x4,” coach Olson said. “We had just a handoff there, and we’ve got some handoff things that we know we can clean up and perfect, but overall, pretty good.” 

Rhinelander came home second in the 4x400 with a season-best time of 3:34.86 and a squad that included Ben Olson, Evan Shoeder, Leisure and Barr. Barr had the lead in the anchor leg but could not keep up with one of the state’s best 400 runners, Parker Schmitt of Wausau East, who posted a winning time of 49.33 in the open 400 earlier in the night. 

Amos Bergman came home third in the 110 hurdles (16.96) and fourth in the 300 hurdles (45.56), while Myles Eagleson took third in the triple jump with a leap of 39-10 1/4.

“We finally got Myles back on track in the jumps, with not only one mark, but more than one mark at a really good competitive distance,” coach Olson noted. “We’ve been waiting for him to just score some jumps. He’s been having some troubles, going slightly over the edge of the board. So that was that was good, very positive for us to see that.”

Jackson Weinzatl took fourth in both the 1,600 and the 800, Charlie Antonuk took fourth in the pole vault, Jonathan Campbell was fifth in the 800, Ben Olson was fifth in the 200 and the Hodags added a third-place finish in the 4x800 relay. 

The Hodags have two more meets this week ahead of conference. They are scheduled to travel to Tomahawk tonight for the Hatchet Invite and then will host the Hodag Invite Thursday at Mike Webster Stadium.

“We kind of split the events kind of what we’re thinking between Tuesday and Thursday, again, a little bit of load management, but still giving them, giving them the events they want to do,” Wyss said. 

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].