For the Tomahawk Leader
TOMAHAWK – The Tomahawk Hatchet cross country team hosted its 20th annual Alumni Scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 21, at the entrance to Bradley Park.
The 2021 Hatchets kicked off the fall sports season against former alumni and local TARA (Tomahawk Area Runners Association) members near one of the Hatchets’ first race sites in Bradley Park. This year’s race traversed SARA Park and the Hiawatha Trail as an alternate route, due to the closure of Bradley Park with the recent storm damage.
Leading the alumni in the 5000 meter men’s event and finishing atop the field was Connor Ahrens, class of 2012, in a time of 17:46. Other alumni finishers were: Justin Lund (class of ’00-2nd), Simon Janeczko (class of ‘98-3rd), Cayton Scholz (‘17-5th), Alex Norman (‘21-7th), Hunter Borchardt (‘21-10th), Gary Buchanen (‘75-15th), Phil Dahl (‘83-16th), Reed Zedler (‘20-17th), Bill Turgeon (‘86-18th), Kurt Reinke (TARA-19th), Cody Strassman (‘12-21st) and Roger Martens (TARA).
The high schoolers were led by senior Arden Ziert’s 19:51, 4th-place effort. Placing in the top ten were: freshman newcomer Sam Zastrow (20:33-6th), Owen Dickrell (20:54-8th), and Presley Gutbrod (21:06-9th). The remaining Hatchet finishers for the boys were: Ty Anthes (11th), Brett Borchardt (12th), Jacob Towle (13th), Taje Casey (14th) and JohnMark Hawley (20th). Coming off a heavy mileage week, a hard workout on Thursday, and dealing with hot and humid conditions all week, the youthful locals could not offset the alumni men (the alumni placed six in the top ten). The “unofficial” alumni score was 18, while the locals finished “unofficially” with 38 points.
The alumni women were led by former Hatchet standout (class of 2020) and University of Wisconsin-Superior sophomore Meagan Berg with her 5th-place overall finish in a time of 22:40. Other alumni finishers were: Dani Whiting (class of ‘16-7th), Paula Norman (TARA-17th), Jewel Towle (class of ‘01-19th), and Shirley Derleth (‘87-20th).
The 2021 Lady Hatchets placed eight finishers in the top ten and topped the alumni by an “unofficial” score of 16-68. The high schoolers were led by champion Rachael Reilly, as she won the 5K in 21:51. Robin Schmidt, Morgan Hansmann, Emily Lacina, and Geena Wanta slammed the door on the alumni, placing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th, respectively, in times of 21:56, 22:09, 22:33 and 23:05 for 5K. Teammates Kate Reilly (8th), Marie Gorell (9th), Serena Reinke (10th), Kambyl Mattke (11th), Ava Dragosh (12th), Halle Derleth (13th), Sophie Urmann (14th), Izzy Lee (15th), Arawen Alberg (16th), and Alli Palmer (18th) helped keep the Hatchets’ streak of six-straight victories intact.
The Hatchets open the season on Thursday, Aug. 26 at Ashland, where eleven other schools will be joining Tomahawk for the invitational. Meet gets underway at 10:30 a.m. from Chequamegon Bay Golf Course on the west side of Ashland.
Full results of the 20th Annual Alumni Scrimmage can be found at the following team website at www.bit.ly/3B3RRAr.