Cross country: Tomahawk officially opens season in Rhinelander

/ Sports

For the Tomahawk Leader

RHINELANDER – The Tomahawk runners went to Rhinelander for their official season opening meet on Thursday, Aug. 29 at the 14-team Rhinelander Invitational, held at the Rhinelander High School, with the race going through their school forest and soccer field.

The Lady Hatchets finished just behind the victor, Lakeland, in the large school race, taking second place with 59 points.

The Hatchet boys took sixth place against some tough competition with 131 points.

“Despite the previous week’s heavy mileage and the taxing workouts in the extremely hot temperatures this week, our kids competed,” said coach Steph Ahrens. “In some cases, we even had a few athletes beat their time from last year at this very same course.”

Senior Alli Palmer took an impressive 3rd place overall in a time of 22:26. Tomahawk girls who made up the rest of the scoring five were Lydia Shaney (8th-23:24), Ellie Micke (18th-24:47), Norah Mann (23rd-25:15), and Faith Derleth (25th-25:25).

Other finishers for the Hatchets were Abbie Rosenmeier (30th-26:03), Elizabeth Arnott (35th-27:05), Reese Molitor (40th-27:37), Reagan Gorell (43rd-28:48), Jennie Frederickson (45th-29:22) and Summer Gaedtke (DNF).

Girls’ team scores: Lakeland-56, Tomahawk-59, Wausau East-59, Rhinelander-65, Antigo-146, Northland Pines-150, Merrill-173.

Senior Sam Zastrow led the boys’ team by taking 29th in a time of 20:27. Scorers for the boys were Jeremiah Johnson (30th-20:33), Beau Stromberg (34th-20:49), Drew Voermans (40th-21:02) and Joe Zastrow (65th-22:28).

Other finishers for Tomahawk were Nathan Rosenmeier (71st-22:57), Elliot O’Connor (85th-23:32), Luke Morrison (86th-23:38), Bruce Peetz (88th-23:43), Karson Hanse (94th-24:18), Gerard Gorell (96th-24:24), Will Boneck (99th-24:46), Ryan Montag (100th-24:49), Dawson Jones (107th-25:31) and Mason Riebe (DNF).

Boys’ team scores: DC Everest-28, Lakeland-57, Rhinelander-84, Wausau East-106, Northland Pines-124, Tomahawk 131, Merrill-186, Antigo-DNS.

“Some of our freshman boys continually moved up throughout the race and looked very strong,” said coach Kurt Reinke. It was very exciting to see.”

“We ran into some dehydration issues, and it bit us,” said coach Connor Ahrens. “This issue, paired with our heavy-mileage, front-loaded season, culminated in a very challenging race for our athletes. Rhinelander’s course is not an easy one, and the teams that were present were ready for it. Despite a tough result for our boys, we expect them to bounce back with resiliency and be ready for the next meet. Our girls had a few individual setbacks, but nothing they won’t overcome. Despite these setbacks, they still managed to achieve a second-place finish landing right on the heels of Lakeland.”

The Lady Hatchets took second place in Rhinelander late last month. Photos courtesy of Connor Ahrens.

Athletes of the Week

Ellie Micke – “Distinguishing herself in the girls’ Rhinelander race was freshman Ellie Micke. She put herself in a great position when the team needed her, taking the 3rd-place spot on the girls team thus far in a time of 24:47. Ellie achieved this by clearly showing great personal drive and competing at each point in the race. Being her first year, Ellie still has much to learn, but seems to be grasping quickly what it takes to be a varsity contributor.”
Elliot O’Connor – “Junior Elliot O’Connor looked strong throughout the Rhinelander race and made huge improvement from his time last year, dropping over 34 seconds to run his new personal course record time of 23:32. He also finished 7th on the team. Elliot continues to develop as a distance runner and finished the week out the very next day with an excellent seven-mile-long run. The coaching staff is extremely pleased with his effort and results this week while looking forward to what’s to come for the junior.”
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