TIMM’S HILL CC INVITATIONAL - TOPS AT TIMM’S HILL
The host Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks, coming off their second-place finish at last fall’s WIAA Division 3 boys state race, showed they aren’t slowing down at all, while the Medford girls took their first steps toward possibly getting back into state contention at Thursday’s season-opening Timm’s Hill Cross Country Invitational.
On a perfect late August afternoon for running under the shade of the Timm’s Hill County Park woods, the host Hawks and their Marawood Conference rivals from Phillips filled 18 of the top 20 spots with the Hawks taking the boys team title by 13 points over the Loggers. Medford finished a distant third.
Meanwhile, in the girls race, it came right down to the fifth scorer in a battle between Phillips and Medford with Raider Greta Seidel’s 12th-place finish sealing a 31-34 win for Medford, who regained the meet championship, after a one-year hiatus. Rib Lake-Prentice, fielding a full team in this meet for the first time since 2021, took third with 65 points.
Phillips was 24 points better than Medford at last year’s Timm’s Hill meet.
“We came back a lot better than last year,” Medford senior Morgan Liske said.
“We had a big improvement with (individual) placing and teamwise. Way better.”
“Every single one of us improved,” said Lindsay Kahn, who finished second out of 37 runners.
Phillips senior Leah Harper successfully defended her 2024 Timm’s Hill girls title. She got out ahead of the pack early and pulled away for a winning time of 20:44.8, about 18 seconds faster than last year. Kahn moved up a spot to second with her time of 21:34.6, which was about 32 seconds faster than her 2024 time. Hawk senior Kylie Orysen moved up six spots from a year ago, taking third in 22:07.7, an improvement of 1:18 over her time last year.
“I was just going for time today and I was really happy with my time,” Kahn said.
Kahn, Liske and Mallory Richter, competing at one of the area’s most challenging courses for the fourth time, used that knowledge to their advantage. Liske was sixth in 22:54.9, improving by 1:32 over last year. She made a late push and edged past freshman teammate Melanie Richter, who had an impressive debut, taking seventh at 22:55.4. Mallory Richter was right behind them, placing eighth in 23:17.7, about 36 seconds faster than last year.
“We put in so much work this summer and I think that’s what’s making a humongous difference,” Mallory Richter said.
“We picked people off within the first half-mile and then after that, it was just Melanie, Mallory and me and nobody else,” Liske said.
The job, though, wasn’t done. Tana Henderson of Phillips took fourth and Loggers Ruby McCormick and Lyla Rahmer took ninth and 10th. With each team having four runners in and Medford holding a slim two-point lead, the team outcome rested with the fifth runners. Seidel came in 12th at 24:13.6, 1.7 seconds ahead of Logger Addie Gabay to secure the win. Seidel, a sophomore, had Medford’s biggest improvement over last year, cutting an incredible 5:06 from a year ago.
Freshman Kyra Scheithauer also had a strong opener for Medford, taking 16th in 25:28.8. Kayla Daniels was 18th in 25:45.9, senior Esmeralda Anderson was 129th in 26:21, which was 2:09 faster than last year, Josey Krug was 29th at 31:26.6, Isabella Leischer was 36th in 34:47, improving by 3:38 over last year, and Lauren Stark was 37th at 34:59.
“You kinda know what to expect and you figure out how to use your rolling hills,” Liske said. There’s always a downhill to the uphill.”
“If you have to conserve a little bit, conserve,” Kahn said. “But you have to make sure you’re ready for those hills.”
The seniors said a renewed commitment to off-season work certainly paid off in the first meet.
“It’s coming together how I thought it would,” Mallory Richter said.
“It’s totally checking out for us,” Anderson said.
The Hawks got a good opening meet from freshman Ella Orysen, who placed 11th in 23:44. All but one of the rest of Rib Lake-Prentice’s girls were competing in their first varsity race. Senior Emma Tlusty was the team’s third finisher, taking 22nd in 27:49.1, and junior Ella Grzanna was 23rd at 28:00.7. Annalee Roder was 27th at 29:54.5, Anna Scott was 28th at 30:07.5 and returner Avie Schutt was 30th at 31:33.1. Mackenzie Lyons (34:43.7) and Sydney Briggs (34:43.8) were 34th and 35th.
Flambeau, Butternut, Athens and Thorp had incomplete lineups.
Hawks run away with it
Runners wearing maroon and gold were seemingly everywhere at the front of Thursday’s boys race.
Gavin Esterholm of Phillips won the race in 17:09.6, but the Hawks had five of the next seven runners to easily secure the team title, 22-35 over Phillips. Medford had 85 points while Thorp, Butternut and Athens were incomplete.
“We came out and executed almost perfectly,” Hawk senior Kaleb Scott said.
Henry Regier and Scott went back and forth in the second and third spots with a last-second sprint from Scott getting him second in 17:16.6, 0.9 seconds ahead of Regier. Hawk seniors Truman Smith and Heston Hueckman were fourth and fifth in 18:37.3 and 18:44.1. Junior Seamus Highfill was the fifth scorer, taking eighth in 19:15.7.
The only runners not wearing maroon or black in the top 20 were Ben Hartwig and Eli Paul of Athens, who were ninth and 12th.
“It was really, really close,” Scott said. “(Esterholm) started pulling away by the two-mile. It was just little surges. It just got to the point where he just made sure he was just far enough ahead where, for me and Henry, we were trading the entire time. One of my highlights of the race was where I was a little bit ahead of Henry and he could tell I was dying. Then I hear behind me, ‘I’m going to pull you forward, just latch on to me.’ He sacrificed energy to get me back on pace. I wasn’t doing it for myself, he wasn’t doing it for himself.”
“One of my highlights of the race is when (Scott) was in front and starting to get distance,” Regier said. “Without Kaleb there, my pace would’ve started falling off. I would’ve dropped back. Just having someone there, a great friend, a brother, pushing together, it’s so much fun.”
Hawk Jeremy Wiitala just missed the top 10, taking 11th in 19:25.4, Jackson Schutt had a strong race. The junior was 13th in 19:37.8. Sophomore Dene Zuleger improved by six minutes over last year and took 15th in 19:46.2 and Eliah Harding was 20th in 20:24.3.
“(This race is) about patience and aggressiveness,” Scott said. “There was a point in the race where Jackson caught up to me, Henry and Gavin. I had to stick my arm out to stop him. It’s the patience. We love the aggression but now is not the time.”
“On a course like this, it’s so strategic,” Regier said. “You can’t just hold a pace when you’re going up all of these hills.”
Regier said seeing all of that maroon in the front pack was an awesome sight.
“There was a cool moment back in the woods where the pace wasn’t crazy and we were getting ready for attacks later in the race,” Regier said. “I looked behind and I see, I want to say it was Heston, Truman, Jackson and I saw Jeremy and Seamus too. I yelled out pretty loud, ‘this is our team’ because I was pretty proud. This is our team. This is where we need to be and we’re here.”
Sophomore Corbyn Radlinger and junior Peyton Ried led Medford, taking 21st and 22nd in 20:48.8 and 20:50.6, times for both that were slightly better than last year. Senior Evan Pagel and junior Jordan Lavin were 24th and 25th in 21:12.7 and 21:23.4. Lavin improved by more than a minute. Senior Will Daniels was the fifth scorer, placing 27th in 22:16, and teammate Nevyn Gripentrog was 28th in 22:48.4. Isaac Damm was 41st at 38:55.5.
Also for the Hawks, Riley Johnson was 33rd (24:40.4), Kevin Head was 35th (26:51), Ian Weber was 36th (27:16.6), Jack Dananay was 38th (28:10.2) and Jaden Briggs was 40th (32:28.5).
Middle school
Medford won the team title in the boys middle school race by a 30-49 margin over Rib Lake-Prentice. Phillips (57), Butternut (83) and Flambeau (incomplete) also competed.
Medford’s five scorers all finished in the top 10. Parker Ried was third (12:27.6), Finnegan Murphy was fifth (12:30.2), Tanner Gebauer was eighth (12:53.3), Brantley Komanec was ninth (13:00.9) and Angus Peterson was 10th (13:06.4).
Rib Lake-Prentice’s Waylon Thielke was sixth in 12:35 and Mason Jacobson was seventh at 12:40.1.
Phillips easily won the girls meet with 24 points, followed by Rib Lake-Prentice (55), Medford (73) and Athens (78). Butternut and Flambeau were incomplete.
Hawks Greta Regier (13:36), Molly Adams (13:53) and Zoey Shin (14:24) were sixth, eighth and 10th. Savannah Seidl (14:54) and Adalyn Hackbarth (14:54) led Medford, taking 12th and 13th.
