BY JED BUELOW
TOMAHAWK LEADER CO-EDITOR, SPORTS, NATURE EDITOR
. The Hatchets were very impressive in their debut event sweeping both races in dominant fashion. Pack running by both squads propelled the locals to victories.
“To start the season with a solid performance is always fun for the athletes. After two high-mileage
weeks with some challenging interval workouts combined with the two a day workouts at camp, they
ran strong on tired legs,” stated Hatchet head coach John Zuelsdorf. “Haley (Voermans-Dean) made a veteran move mid-race to put the Hayward runner in her rear-view and worked hard over the last 1600m to claim stake to her first invite title of the year. Her time was over a minute faster than last year. Meagan, Macey, Emily and Kate got out strong and also ran solid races for us as well.”
That veteran move Coach Z was referring to came at the two-mile mark when Voermans-Dean kicked in the after burners and never looked back racing to the individual invitational title covering the 5K course in a time of 20:58.
The Lady Hatchets had themselves a day in Oredocker Country placing three runners in the top 10. Also earning medalist honors for Tomahawk were Emily Lacina (6th-21:47) and Macey Mann (9th-21:51). Other varsity finishers for Tomahawk were Meagan Berg (11th-22:07), Kate Reilly (17th-23:42),Geena Wanta (20th- 24:26), Greta Tjugum (27th), Gillian Buckwalter (32nd), Serena Reinke (39th), Neenah Fuste (42nd), Tianna Gerstenberger (51st), Ava Dragosh (61st), Leslie Vance (66th), and Autumn Peissig (75th) completed the Hatchet attack in the 121-runner event.
“Geena (Wanta) and Greta (Tjugum) also ran nice races in our top-seven to start their season, they served as scoring displacers to inflate other team’s scores and push the lady Hatchets to the team title.”
Girls Team Scores were Tomahawk-43, Hayward-69, Chequamegon-104, Barron-110 and Northwestern-112 finished out the top five.
Drew Bolder was the top finisher for the Hatchets as he raced to a runner-up invitational title placing 2nd in a time of 17:51.
“We knew Drew (Bolder) had his sights set on beating the athlete from Solon Springs, but after the Barron runner took it out blazing fast and Dickenson (from Solon Springs) made a bold move shortly thereafter his legs couldn’t respond. He has been putting in extra mileage on his own working to keep his weekly mileage and VO2 max up, so his legs may have been a bit heavy. His focus is on what happens at tournament time, so things like this can happen,” Coach Z said. “To finish as a runner-up champ on tired legs is still quite an accomplishment.”
Teammates also earning medalist honors for Tomahawk were: Noah Buckwalter (7th-18:56) and Garron Albrent (9th-19:05). Trey Baalke (11th-19:20), Keaton Jed (12th-19:21), Alex Norman(18th-19:32), and Arden Ziert (21st-19:40) completed the varsity level finishers. Others finishing for the boys included Jack Lacina (33rd), Hunter VanRyen (49th), Hunter Borchardt (52nd), Reed Zedler (70th),Henry Calhoun (106th), Jacob Towle (108th), Brady Tjugum (112th), Trey Miller (133rd), Taje Casey (136th) and John Mark Hawley (142nd) in the 166-runner field.
“What was fun to watch in the boy’s race was how our pack (Buckwalter, Albrent, Baalke, Jed, Norman and Ziert) didn’t panic early on when Northwestern took an early lead, they patiently worked as a group to break up their scoring pack and came down the stretch to claim the victory.”
Boys Team Scores were Tomahawk-41, Northwestern-54, Superior-130, Ironwood-130 and Solon Springs-138 rounded out the top five finishers.
The Hatchet co-ed cross country team is back in action on Saturday, Sept. 7 as Tomahawk travels to Freedom for the Irish Waters Invitational. The Hatchets will look to continue the strong start to the season at the 36-team invite that gets underway at 8:30 a.m.