Tour de force: Hodag girls claim 9 events in GNC repeat

The Rhinelander High School girls’ track team was the overwhelming favorite to defend its Great Northern Conference title and showed why on Tuesday, in a dominating effort at Mike Webster Stadium.

The Hodags won nine events, had 11 other top three finishes and rolled to the conference title. Rhinelander scored points with all but one of its 32 total entries on the night and beat Tomahawk by 68 points for the title.

Simply put, the Hodags displayed a level of depth no other team in the conference could match.

“It kind of went according to plan. We knew we had the lineup to do it. We know we had the girls to do it. We were just feeling really confident coming in,” Hodag girls’ coach Andy Wyss said. “We can just spread the wealth around and fill events with really great entries. And I mean, the reason we didn’t have somebody in a event was just because we could score a few more points on something else. It was just really just a showcase of our depth that we could fill every event with really good athletes and we were gonna come away with top five finishes in everything. It was just a really a tribute to them and all the work they put in over the year.”

    Rhinelander’s Macy Myers clears a height in the pole vault during the GNC championship track meet at Mike Webster Stadium Tuesday, May 19. Myers won the event with a conference- and school-record mark of 11 feet, 7 inches. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Senior Aila Bergman and junior Macy Myers were both winners in a pair of individual events, each setting a conference record in the process. In Myers’ case it was also a school record as she cleared 11 feet, 7 inches in the pole vault — beating her conference mark in the event by four inches and her school record by an inch. She went on a short time later to lead wire-to-wire in the 800 meters (2 minutes, 26.51 seconds).

“I was afraid that I was going to have to run the 800 beforehand, like I usually do, but being able to just get that in before I ran the 800, I think it was just really helpful for me to have fresh legs. I was really happy about that,” Myers said.

    Rhinelander’s Aila Bergman competes in the 300-meter hurdles during the GNC championship track meet at Mike Webster Stadium Tuesday, May 19. Bergman won the event in a conference-record time of 46.92 seconds. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Bergman swept the hurdle events. She led a 1-2-4 Hodag finish in the 100 hurdles with a winning time of 15.88 seconds and then took the 300 hurdles in 46.92 — beating her conference-record time from last year by 0.05 seconds. 

“I felt pretty good, since I don’t have much competition, it’s different for me. I don’t really PR as much as I’d hope to, but I think it’s pretty good that I still got my conference record,” she said.

The domination was apparent from the start of the meet, as the Hodags led nearly wire-to-wire in the 4x800 relay with the group of senior Millie Gruett, freshman Noelle Mayo, sophomore Mady Treder and junior Kara Monk. Monk held off Medford’s Lindsay Kahn over the final 800 to give the Hodags a 4.04-second win (10:42.06). 

Rhinelander roared in the 4x200 with the group of junior Shyanne Hueckstaedt, freshman Teagan Clark, junior Alexis Smith and senior Violet Biolo (1:52.02), holding off Merrill by 0.48 seconds for the win and then put the cherry on the sundae with a convincing win in the 4x400 as  the all-junior quartet of Hueckstaedt, Myers, Olivia Ruetz and Lucy Eddy knocked off top-seeded Merrill by roughly 7 1/2 seconds (4:16.78).

Rhinelander came within about 50 meters of sweeping all four relay races. The Hodags had the lead in the final leg of the 4x100, but Ruetz was overtaken on the final straightaway as Rhinelander settled for third there. 

“That was one bad handoff away from sweeping the relays,” Wyss said. “And that was also a good feeling because we kind of saved a couple of our A-team state-level girls, and we just kind of filled in with the other supporting cast we had. And again, that speaks to our depth where we can fill in people like Alexis and Olivia and Teagan, where they can step up and fill in those relays, and we still come out at top of the conference. That, right there, speaks to the depth that we’ve got.”

Senior Libbey Buchmann won the shot put (37-5) and — despite beating her old conference record in the discus (131-4) — had to settle for the runner-up spot there, edged out by five inches by Medford’s Rivalee Stokes.

    Rhinelander’s Marsadies Williams competes in the long jump during the GNC championship track meet at Mike Webster Stadium Tuesday, May 19. Williams led a 1-2 Hodag finish in the event with a winning jump of 16 feet, 6 inches. (Blake Richard/River News)
  

Freshman Marsadies Williams also had a strong meet, winning the long jump (16-6), finishing second in the 100 hurdles (17.63) and third in both the 300 hurdles (51.32) and the pole vault (9-6). Hueckstaedt, Clark, Smith and Ruetz made up Rhinelander’s third-place quartet in the 4x100 (53.24).

Bergman added runner-up finishes in the long jump (15-10 1/2) and the triple jump (33-1).

Rhinelander also got third-place performances out of Eddy in the 400 (1:02.12), Kara Monk in the 3,200 (12:58.14), Jalyn Zadnik in the shot put (33-6) and Emeline Hintz in the pole vault (9-6).

“We went 1-2 in the long jump,” Wyss said. “That was awesome. The hurdles were huge for us. I mean, just really hoarding points in those events that we were solid in. The long jump, the pole vault, the both hurdle races, just solid.”

In another testament to the Hodags’ depth, 16 different athletes earned spots in the GNC’s all-conference team by placing in the top three in at least one event or relay. Bergman said the energy from the strong performance permitted throughout the squad. 

“The team was just really upbeat tonight, and I feel like that really helped us push to get there and win,” she said.

Biolo just missed out on all-conference honors in both the 100 and 200, finishing fourth in both events. Hintz made the 100 hurdle finals, taking fourth. Sam Aschenbrenner gave the Hodags three in the top four in shot put with a fourth-place finish and Smith made the finals in the long jump, coming home fifth. 

Tomahawk’s Elise Gibeault, who swept the 100, 200 and 400 meters, was named the conference’s female runner of the year. Stokes earned field athlete of the year honors.

The night continued a high-water mark for the program. The Hodag boys won their fourth conference title in eight years (see related story) and the momentum may last awhile as the James Williams Middle School track team swept the boys’ and girls’ titles at the GNC middle school conference meet a night earlier in Medford. 

“We got a fantastic group of kids that they love to work hard, and they can perform with the best of them,” Wyss said. “We know what we get out of them at practice, and it shines through with these meets. We have extremely good coaches, from the middle school level to the high school level, we’ve got coaches that are really invested in developing the kids, developing the athletes, and it’s paying off in awesome ways.”

Attention now turns to a WIAA Division 2 regional meet, to be held this coming Tuesday at Medford. The Hodags will enter that meet with high hopes, considering that the nine-team field will be the entire GNC plus Colby.

“Hoping that that gives us a lot of opportunity to get a lot through into the next round,” Wyss said. “And I think that’s gonna be the biggest thing for us. If we can just get more onto the next round, that just puts us in a better chance to succeed and potentially get more on the state.”

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].