Lady Hatchets take first place, boys finish in 6th
For the Tomahawk Leader
ASHLAND – The Tomahawk Hatchet cross country team opened their season on Thursday, Aug. 26 at the 13-team Ashland Invitational, held at the Chequamegon Bay Golf Course on the west side of Ashland.
The Lady Hatchets ran strong in their debut event, showcasing solid pack running to take the team title, while the boys finished mid-pack in 6th place.
Placing eight in the top 20 for the Tomahawk girls: Morgan Hansmann (8th-22:44), Macey Mann (9th-22:48), Rachael Reilly (10th-23:08), Robin Schmidt (11th-23:22), Kate Reilly (12th-23:42), Geena Wanta (17th-24:05), Ava Dragosh (18th-24:06), and Emily Lacina (19th-24:24).
Serena Reinke (28th), Sophie Urmann (29th), Halle Derleth (33rd), Kambyl Mattke (38th), Alli Palmer (49th), Izzy Lee (56th), and Arawen Alberg (60th) completed the Hatchet attack in the 109-runner event.
Girls’ team scores: Tomahawk-45, Northwestern-92, Chequamegon-107, Superior-125, Solon Springs- 133, Barron-152, Ironwood-163, Hayward-169, Hurley-213, Washburn-268, and Ashland-Inc., Bayfield- Inc., and Drummond-Inc.
“Our ‘pack style’ running for the girls was impressive, with top five scorers under a minute split, but what we will have to improve upon is not letting the lead runners separate so much from the front end of our group,” said head coach John Zuelsdorf.
Sophomore Presley Gutbrod was the top finisher for the Hatchet boys, placing 13th in a time of 20:07.
Teammates also scoring for Tomahawk were freshman Sam Zastrow (28th-20:52), Arden Ziert (35th- 21:07), Owen Dickrell (42nd-21:32) and Brett Borchardt (48th-22:07). Ty Anthes (51st), Jacob Towle (67th), and Taje Casey (100th) completed the varsity-level finishers. There were 124 finishers in the boys race.
Boys’ team scores: Chequamegon-50, Northwestern-50, Superior-97, Solon Springs-114, Ashland-148, Tomahawk-153, Ironwood-156, Hurley-208, Hayward-228, Drummond-Inc., Barron-Inc., Washburn-Inc.
“We knew our boys would be challenged to defend their title, but we were proud of how aggressively they went out in the first mile,” Zuelsdorf stated. “With more training, our goal will be to maintain that throughout the race, which will improve their end result. Presley, Sam, and Arden did a nice job of finding each other in the larger field and working together.”
Zuelsdorf noted that the team’s first-year runners finished strong.
“Sam, Ty, Halle, Sophie, and Allie all finished in the top half of their race,” he said.
The Hatchets will travel to Nine Mile Forest in Wausau for the Marathon Invitational on Thursday, Sept 2. The meet gets underway at 4:30 p.m.
Athletes of the Week
Morgan Hansmann – “Morgan got out strong with our girls’ pack, worked well with Macey mid-race and had a solid finish to lead the way for our girls. It was nice to see her have that success, as she has been nursing some early-season aches and pains. She also improved by over two minutes on the same course from last year.”
Presley Gutbrod – “He ran really confident and relaxed throughout his race and put himself in a competitive position early on that he was able to maintain. Presley is still figuring out his limits and ultimate ‘top end’ in a race. He ran nearly a minute and a half faster this year on the same course, as compared to last year at the event.”