Boys a solid second at Phillips; Orysen finishes 6th at Marathon

PRENTICE-RIB LAKE CROSS COUNTRY

The Prentice-Rib Lake Hawks got their first look of the fall at sectional course and some of the competition they’ll face in that race next month at Tuesday’s Phillips Invitational, held at the Loggers’ Moonlight Lane course.

The Hawks had a solid day in the boys race, placing second out of four scoring teams with 57 points. The host Loggers posted a perfect score of 15, Drummond was third with 78 points and Cumberland was fourth with 83 points, while six more squads had incomplete teams.

Senior Ryan Buehler led the Hawks with a time of 19:47.3 that put him 11th out of 51 finishers and just ahead of teammates Kaleb Scott (19:48.7) and Jack Regier (19:50.7). Regier lowered his time 43 seconds from the team’s previous meet Thursday at Marathon.

The next trio of Hawks also finished back-to-back-to-back. Freshman Evan Lord had his best outing of the young season, placing 20th in 21:56.7, just ahead of Elijah Scott (22.05.5) and senior Ben Petersen (22:10.5). Petersen lowered his time by 46 seconds from Thursday.

Senior Nolan Sarkkinen and sophomore Matthew Schmidt were 27th and 28th in 22:33.4 and 22:37.9, while freshman Eliah Harding was 33rd in 23:17.8. All three of those times were season bests. Connor Highfill was 41st in 26:21.8 and Nick Nikkila was 51st in 41:19.3.

Buehler easily beat his time from last year’s sectional meet on this course, which was 20:26.3.

Ladysmith sophomore Gavin Stewart easily won the race in 17:28. Phillips had the next five finishers, allowing the Loggers to secure their perfect team score. Maverick Hoogland (18:21.3), Gavin Esterholm (18:32.9), Connor Gabay (18:43.2), James Vollendorf (18:49.3) and Julian Ellingen (18:55.8) were second through sixth individually. Ladysmith, South Shore, Washburn, Hurley, Butternut and Bayfield were the incomplete teams.

Ladysmith added another individual title Tuesday with freshman Marika Gago taking the girls race in 21:24.6. She led the Lumberjacks to a second-place finish as they scored 49 points to trail Phillips’ total of 25. Loggers Meredith Merlak (22:33.30 and Leah Harper (22:58.7) were second and third, while Sarah Knaack was fifth (23:13.6) behind Cumberland’s Carly McCreary (23:03.9).

The Hawks had three finishers in Tuesday’s race. Sophomore newcomer Lauren Schutt lead the trio with a new best time of 30:45.4, good for 36th place out of 48 runners. Senior newcomer Emma Scott was 40th in 32:18.2 and sophomore Amy Espinoza was 44th in 34:44.7.

Cumberland (85), Washburn (94) and Hurley (117) had at least five runners to factor into the team scoring. Butternut, South Shore and Drummond were incomplete.

The Hawks are at the 9 a.m. Chequa- megon Invitational on Saturday.

Marathon meet

With their full squad on hand for a meet for the first time this fall, the Hawks turned in some improved efforts over the Aug. 25 Timm’s Hill meet at Thursday’s Marathon Invitational, held at the Nine Mile Recreation Area, and placed fourth out of 13 teams.

The boys full crew of 11 runners competed, led by Buehler, who placed ninth out of 114 finishers in a time of 19:03.8 in his 2022 debut. He was one second behind Marathon’s Jacob Smith and 1.8 seconds behind seventh-place runner Charles Jewell of Auburndale.

Newcomer Kaleb Scott wasn’t far behind in his first race, taking 14th in 19:36.2, just 0.2 seconds behind Tomahawk’s Presley Gutbrod and 1.2 seconds behind 12th-place runner Mason White Eagle of Auburndale.

Connor Sheahan of Athens ran away from the front pack and won in 17:11.5, well ahead of Waupaca runner-up Owen Lencki (18:24.3). Athens had the next two runners in Nathan Wolf (18:30.5) and Andrew Schaer (18:42.5). Marathon’s Jaron Gage (18:51.5) was fifth.

Regier was 25th in 20:33.8, knocking off 19 seconds from his opening time at Timm’s Hill. Schmidt was 38th at 21:30.5, knocking off 1:15, and Elijah Scott was the team’s fifth scorer, placing 45th in 21:43.4.

Lord was 50th in 22:02, cutting his time by 1:55 from Timm’s Hill. Petersen was 59th in 22:56.7 in his first race of the fall and Sarkkinen was 65th at 23:12.9, almost three minutes faster than he was at Timm’s Hill.

Harding finished 69th at 23:39, Highfill was 84th in 25:29 and Nikkila was 113th in 38:26.7.

Athens easily won the team title with 38 points, well ahead of Marathon (94), Tomahawk (109), Prentice-Rib Lake (126), Auburndale (132) and D.C. Everest (141). Pittsville was seventh with 155 points, followed by Waupaca (194), Wittenberg-Birnamwood (217), Wisconsin Rapids Assumption (226), Merrill (249) and incomplete teams from Port Edwards and Three Lakes.

Kylie Orysen had an excellent second run for her varsity career, taking sixth for the Hawks in the girls race with a time of 22:57.8, which was about 37 seconds faster than her opening time at Timm’s Hill. In a field of 82 finishers, only Rory Salveson of Wittenberg-Birnamwood (21:12.6), Kallie Volk of Three Lakes (21:25.5), Rachael Reilly of Tomahawk (21:29.7) and Brianna Sheahan of Athens (22:55.5) were faster than Orysen.

Three more Hawks finished their first races of the season. Emma Scott was 67th in 31:55.4, Schutt was 69th at 31:59.2 and Espinoza was 73rd in a time of 33:32.8.

Tomahawk cruised to the team title with 38 points, easily outscoring Assumption (78), Marathon (87), Athens (132), Merrill (135), Abbotsford (159), Waupaca (182), Pittsville (186), Wittenberg- Birnamwood (189) and the incomplete teams from Prentice-Rib Lake, Port Edwards, Nekoosa, Three Lakes and Faith Christian.

Prentice-Rib Lake was second in the middle boys team standings with 79 points. Three Lakes won with 57. Assumption was third with 90. Henry Regier was fourth in 12:14.9 and Hagan Isaacson was fifth at 12:25.2.