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Hodag harriers runners-up at Three Lakes Invite

Rhinelander came home second in both divisions of Thursday’s Three Lakes Invite at Big Stone Golf Club. In each instance, the Hodags were beaten by defending GNC champion and the team who figures to be the favorite heading to conference later this month in Eagle River.

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RHS tennis takes 5th at GNC meet

The end result was that Rhinelander finished as a middle of the pack team in the GNC, placing fifth in the conference meet Thursday hosted by Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua. Rhinelander finished fifth overall in the eight-team league as well after sitting in fifth through the dual meet portion of the conference season.

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Woes continue for Hodag soccer in 5-1 loss to Waupaca

The Hodags continued a grueling stretch of play Monday by conceding four second-half goals in a 5-1 loss to Waupaca in a non-conference match at Mike Webster Stadium.

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Hodag netters fall to Medford 5-2

The Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team entered yesterday’s Great Northern Conference tournament in danger of finishing outside the top half of the conference standings for the first time as a member of the GNC.

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Hodag swimmers rout Medford, take 7th in Waukesha

The Hodags won all 11 events Thursday as they downed last year’s GNC runner-up Medford 125-45 in a conference dual meet at the Heck Family Community Pool. Rhinelander followed that up by coming home as the high-placing Division 2 program Saturday as it finished seventh overall in the Blackshirt Invite at Waukesha South High School.

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Cross country: Gremban, Barr score top 20s at Smiley

In the largest regular season race for the Rhinelander High School cross country team this season, two of the Hodags’ top runners showed strong form as they gear up for a late-season push. Senior Greyson Gremban took 10th overall and sophomore Avrom Barr finished 18th in a field of 148 runners in the Division 1 race at the 68th annual Bill Smiley Invitational in Wausau on Saturday.

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Hodag volleyball splits matches in GNC meet

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team overcame a sluggish start to its day Saturday to pick up its first Great Northern Conference win of the season during the first leg of the GNC tournament in Minocqua.

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Hodag tennis downs Columbus, looks to position itself for GNC meet

The Hodags swept singles and took two of three doubles matches in a 6-1 victory over Marshfield Columbus in the Hodag Dome. That win temporarily vaulted Rhinelander to third in the GNC standings, two points ahead of Medford and Wausau Newman.

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RHS soccer can’t keep up with Pines in 6-1 loss

Still not at 100% on the health front, the Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team was unable to keep with Northland Pines in GNC play Thursday night.

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Hatchet haymaker

Tomahawk stuns Hodags 21-14 on last-second fake field goal

Senior Brayden Larson almost single-handedly willed the Hatchets to victory with three big plays in the final minute Friday night and found Landyn Seymour wide open for a back-breaking 31-yard score with three seconds remaining as Tomahawk stunned Rhinelander 21-14 at Hatchet Field.

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Lakeland volleyball sweeps Rhinelander

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team could not keep up with Lakeland Tuesday night, falling to the T-Birds in straight sets during Great Northern Conference play in Minocqua.

Hodag tennis falls to Newman 5-2

Rhinelander’s chances to finish in the top half of the Great Northern Conference took another hit on Tuesday. Wausau Newman swept doubles and the teams split singles play as the Hodags lost to the Cardinals 5-2 in Wausau.

Wausau East downs Hodag soccer 6-0

The Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team had a hard time keeping up with Wausau East Tuesday in non-conference play. Lucien Nkoranyi and Gio Gomez each scored twice for the Lumberjacks as they raced past the Hodags 6-0 in Wausau.

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Pigskin preview Week 5: Rhinelander at Tomahawk

Hodag football to continue pivotal stretch against hungry Hatchets

The Hodags still need two more wins to become playoff eligible and three more wins to guarantee a postseason berth. With back-to-back games against perennial conference powers Mosinee and Medford looming Oct. 4 and Oct. 10, tonight’s contest and next week’s Bell Game at Antigo are key as the Hodags attempt to position themselves for a playoff push.

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RHS swimmers down Ladysmith, win Hodag Relays

Swimming at home for the first time this season, the Rhinelander High School girls’ swim team continued its winning ways in a pair of meets late last week.

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RHS soccer drops GNC showdown at Lakeland

Lakeland’s Dominic Gironella scored twice and had an assist, while the Hodags lost starting goalkeeper Barak Rappley to a facial injury as Rhinelander fell 3-0 to the T-Birds. That was part of an up and down end to last week for the Hodags, who returned home Saturday and split a pair of games in a home invite, beating Black River Falls 3-0 before losing to Shawano by the same margin.

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Hodag tennis gets back on track with Phillips, Wausau Invite wins

The Hodags dispatched Phillips 7-0 at home Thursday and then won four of their five matches Friday and Saturday in the Wausau West Invite.

Hodag harriers tested at SPASH Invite

Between the field, the course and the conditions, the Rhinelander High School cross country team had its work cut out for itself Saturday in the Stevens Point Invite.

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Rhinelander soccer scores early, late to down Mosinee

Scores from Hart Hokens and Michael Schiek lifted the Rhinelander offense while keeper Barak Rappley made six saves as the Hodags defeated Mosinee 2-0 in Great Northern Conference play at Mike Webster Stadium.

Hodag harriers score top five finishes in Marshfield

The Rhinelander High School cross country team scored a pair of top-five finishes Tuesday afternoon in Marshfield. The Hodag girls came home fourth while the Hodag boys secured a fifth-place finish in the Marshfield Invite at Wildwood Park.

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Hodag spikers fall to Antigo in four sets

The Hodags stole a set from Antigo, but ran out of steam down the stretch as they fell 25-17, 24-26, 25-9, 25-18 in a GNC match at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

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Lakeland tennis sweeps Rhinelander

The T-Birds took six matches in straight sets and put the cherry on top with a match tiebreaker win at No. 4 singles as they rolled to a 7-0 sweep at the RHS tennis courts.

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Pigskin Preview Week 4: Wausau East at Rhinelander

With Lamers poised to return, Hodags look to get back on track vs. ‘Jacks

Following a 12-8 loss to the Lakeland last Friday night, the Hodags look to get back on track this evening as they host Wausau East at Mike Webster Stadium.

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Hodag volleyball takes set from Tomahawk, splits Ashland matches

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team put itself in position in a number of close sets late last week, ultimately going 2-3 in the matches that it played.

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Hodag soccer gets first win, beats Antigo 3-1

The Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team finally found the back of the net, and the win column, Thursday night. Hart Hokens had a goal, assisted on another, and the Hodags defeated the Antigo Red Robins 3-1 at Mike Webster Stadium.

Hodag swimmers cruise past Antigo in GNC opener

Despite a juggled lineup, a balky timing system and an atypical pool, the Rhinelander High School girls’ swim team had little difficulty Thursday as it began it Great Northern Conference title defense.

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Cross country: Hodag girls win Mosinee Invite

RHS boys take third

The Hodag girls bested most of the GNC on Tuesday and placed four runners in the top 20 as they won the Mosinee Invite at Nine Mile Forest in Wausau.

Rhinelander tennis falls at Pacelli 4-3

Loss follows 1-4 trip to Wausau

A stacked singles lineup was too much for the Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team to overcome Tuesday. Pacelli swept all four singles matches, which proved to be the difference in a 4-3 win for the Cardinals in Great Northern Conference play in Stevens Point.

RHS volleyball 16th in Friendship Tourney

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team won only one match last weekend but that was good enough for the Hodags to finish 16th in the 24-team Friendship Tournament in Wisconsin Dells.

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Pigskin Preview Week 3: Rhinelander at Lakeland

Resilient Hodags look to find a way against T-Birds in Axe Game

It’s a dinged up Hodag team that travels to Minocqua tonight for the 10th playing of the Northwoods Axe Game against the Lakeland Thunderbirds. It’s also an undefeated team that heads to IncredibleBank Field trying to win back the Axe for the first time since 2021.

Shoutouts & Callouts

NFL picks: Is this really the Packers’ year?

Am I ready to get hurt again? Am I ready to go all-in on the Packers and believe they have what it takes to make a deep run in the NFL playoffs and perhaps bring the Vince Lombardi Trophy back home this season? I don’t want to be, but I just might have to be.

Hodag volleyball goes 1-3 in Wyss’s debut

Jayme Wyss scored a victory in her first match as Rhinelander High School volleyball head coach on Tuesday. The Hodags opened with a straight-set win over Berlin before dropping their final three matches of the day to finish sixth in the nine-team SPASH Invite at Stevens Point.

Hodag tennis battles the elements in Wausau

Rhinelander wound up going 1-2 in an abbreviated Wausau West Invite. The Hodags defeated Wausau East 6-1, were edged by Wausau West 4-3 and were swept by Eau Claire North 7-0.

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Pigskin Preview Week 2: Rhinelander at Hayward

Hodags look to build on Week 1 success vs. Hurricanes

The Rhinelander High School football team is eager to build on its 20-0 shutout victory over Ashland as it hits the road tonight to face the Hayward Hurricanes in its final non-conference tune-up of the year.

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Team Preview: RHS volleyball

Wyss hopes Hodags ‘surprise a lot of people’ by season’s end

It may take some time, but new head coach Jayme Wyss said she’s hopeful the Rhinelander High School volleyball team can turn things around.

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Team Preview: RHS boys’ soccer

New-look Hodags to be a work in progress

Coach Nathan Bates said he is confident that his Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team will be a pretty strong squad by season’s end, but it may take a few learning moments along the way to get there.

Rhinelander swimmers strong in opening meets

Rhinelander captured the lion’s share of the top 10 spots Wednesday in the Colby/Abbotsford Pentathlon and then won eight of nine events to take first place Saturday in the Menomonie Relays.

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Hodag netters break out brooms to end week

Four 7-0 wins get RHS back to .500

The Hodags got back to .500 with a quartet of 7-0 sweeps late last week. Rhinelander knocked off Antigo on the road Thursday and then came home Friday to dispatch Merrill, Ashland and Ironwood. Mich. in the Hodag Quadrangular.

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Season opening shutout

Hodags dominant in 20-0 victory over Ashland

If one play on Friday defined the Rhinelander High School football team’s sentiment following a disappointing end to the 2023 season, it was a pinball-style run by junior Cyrus Leisure facing third and 21.

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Medford football tabbed by media to win GNC

In a GNC that’s experienced a lot turnover and new teams, the Raiders are the constant in the eyes of the media, which picked Medford as this year’s champions in the GNC Football Media Poll — a joint effort of the Northwoods River News and The Lakeland Times that canvasses those who follow the conference on a regular basis.

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Notebook: Wyss feels energy on Hodag volleyball first day

Jayme Wyss’s first in-season day as head coach of the RHS volleyball team on Monday was a bit of a whirlwind between the typical first day paperwork, roughly two hours of practice, the first day of varsity tryouts and a parents’ meeting after practice.

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Pigskin Preview Week 1: Ashland at Rhinelander

Rhinelander to face Ashland tonight to kick off 2024 season

It’s a bit of a new-look Great Northern Conference in 2024, with Tomahawk and Wausau East joining the league as football members. As the Rhinelander Hodags prepare to go after their fifth postseason appearance in six years, they will gear up for GNC play by taking on two former members of the conference.

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Team Preview: RHS girls’ swimming

State champion Hodags still have plenty to prove in 2024

The Hodags have a run of five straight sectional titles and five straight top-five finishes at the WIAA Division 2 state meet. They will look to extend those streaks to six years come November, but observers around the state will be curious to see what Rhinelander will do for an encore after the team scored a dominating victory in the Division 2 state meet by winning six of the 12 events.

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Team Preview: RHS girls’ tennis

Hodags want to recapture GNC dominance

Whether it was a matter of the Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team fading back to the pack, the rest of the Great Northern Conference getting better or a combination of the two, 2023 was an uncharacteristic season for the Hodags.

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Football: Hodags’ scrimmage cut short by weather

Passing offense shines, run defense struggles in abbreviated event

A pair of pop-up storm cells suspended and, eventually, canceled a five-team scrimmage at Crandon. The Hodag varsity unit was able to get roughly 30 offensive snaps and 40 defensive plays in before heavy rain and thunderstorms ended things for good a little more than two hours after the scrimmage began.

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Fall Practice Notebook

State-champion Hodag swimmers carry momentum into 2024

The Rhinelander High School girls’ swim team has been in this position before, entering a season as defending WIAA state champions.

Team Preview: RHS football

Hodag gridders seek small wins to accomplish big things

Rhinelander went 5-5 and qualified for the WIAA postseason for the fourth time in five years — and just the sixth time in school history. But the Hodags faded down the stretch with only one win in their last six games. As kickoff for 2024 nears, Kraemer said the team needs to continue to make small steps toward greatness.

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Bates to return to sidelines for RHS boys’ soccer

Following a one-year hiatus, Nathan Bates will be patrolling the sideline for the Hodag boys again this fall. Bates’s return to the program was confirmed to the River News last week by both Bates and RHS activities director Brian Paulson.

Monsters swept out of WBA regionals

Reliever Quinn Lamers allowed 10 runs in the seventh inning as the Monsters fell to Spring Valley 12-6 in the opening game of their WBA playoff pool in River Falls. Ryan Jamison was touched up in the nightcap while Tilden’s Easton Bobb tossed a seven-inning no hitter as the Tigers won 12-0.

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Passing game steals spotlight at Green & White practice

The passing game stole the show as quarterbacks Truman Lamers and Chandler Servent combined to throw four touchdown passes with no interceptions during Saturday’s Green and White intrasquad practice at Mike Webster Stadium.