Finding success while trying to make up for lost time

RIB LAKE TRACK & FIELD

Still in the mode of catching up due to some early meet cancellations, the Rib Lake Redmen were able to try some things with the lineup Monday as well as find continued success with their known commodities at the Chequamegon Invitational.

The boys and girls teams both placed sixth in a meet that included 15 smallersized northern Wisconsin schools on another cool and gray May evening. The boys had the better luck scoring, getting a win and three seconds while totaling 64 points.

The Redmen trailed Phillips (122), Northland Pines (119), Chequamegon (102.5), Ladysmith (100) and Bruce (71.5) in the team standings, while easily outscoring Hurley (39), Washburn (20), South Shore (19), Prentice (9), Flambeau (8), Butternut (7) and Mercer (1).

The Redmen know they have a strength in their distance relays and they got 18 points from those teams Monday.

The 1,600-meter team of Kaleb Scott, Jack Regier, Donovan Sutherland and Dominick Classen won easily for the second straight meet and nearly equaled its time from Friday’s meet in Rib Lake at 3:45.86. Phillips was a distant second at 3:54.52. Ryan Buehler joined Classen, Sutherland and Regier in a second-place finish in the 3,200-meter relay at 8:45.75, a time that fell just 2.66 seconds behind the winners from Ladysmith and was almost 17 seconds better than Friday’s time.

Classen added a second-place finish in the 400-meter dash, an event Rib Lake changed up Monday. Running the event for the first time this spring, Classen finished in 52.91 seconds and Sutherland was third in 54.45 seconds in a race won by Washburn’s Javier LeBouton-Chediack in 52.17 seconds. Scott added three sixth-place points at 55.92 seconds and Regier was 11th in 58.77 seconds.

Buehler had a good night in his open runs, placing fourth in the 800-meter run in a season-best 2:19.28 and fifth in the 1,600-meter run in a personal-best 5:03.03. Connor Highfill was 14th in the 1,600 for Rib Lake, showing a big cut in time at 5:55.87. He got the sixth-place points in the 3,200-meter run at 13:25.36.

Scott was sixth in the 200-meter dash at 25.08 seconds, an improved time from Friday. He was 1.19 seconds behind winner Eli Kerner of Northland Pines.

In the field, senior Theo Robisch scored in three events, led by his secondplace finish in the triple jump. His best effort went 38 feet, 4.25 inches, extending his personal best from earlier this season by three-quarters of an inch. He was 5.75 inches behind winner Ryan Muench of Northland Pines. Gus Zuleger improved by an inch to 30-10, good for 15th. Robisch went 18-7 to also set a new personal-best in the long jump. That was good for fourth place, 7 inches behind Muench. Jack Gjovik of Pines won at 20-4, while Ladysmith’s Ashton Clark went 19 feet. Zuleger was 12th at 15-8, easily the freshman’s best jump of the season. Robisch added one more point by clearing 5-4 in the high jump, good for eighth place.

Ben Petersen was 16th in the 100-meter dash (12.96) and improved to 26.15 seconds in the 200-meter dash, and Robisch was at 26.17 seconds. They were 17th and 18th. Logan Schmittfranz was 20th in the shot put at 29 feet even.

For the girls, Olivia Lopez had Rib Lake’s highest individual finish by taking second in the long jump. Her best leap covered 15-7, 2 inches off her indoor best of the spring from late March. She was 16 inches behind winner Allison Clark of Ladysmith. Rib Lake freshmen Emma Tlusty and Isabelle Gumz both went 13-8 while long jumping for the first time this season and placed seventh and eighth.

Lopez took third in the triple jump with her distance of 31-8.75. She beat South Shore’s Addy LaFontaine by an inch and trailed Clark (34-9.25) and Kirkland Williams of Northland Pines (32-8.25). On the track, Lopez’s best finish was in the 100-meter dash, where she took fourth in 13.41 seconds, an improved time from Friday. KD Knipp of Mercer won in 13.02 seconds.

Rib Lake’s young hurdle crew put some points on the board as well. In the 100-meter highs, Tlusty was fourth in 18.82 seconds, down from 18.9 on Friday, while Gumz was seventh at 20.29 seconds. LaFontaine won in 18.07 seconds. In the 300-meter lows, Tlusty was fifth in 58.79 seconds, Gumz was seventh in a minute flat and Lopez got the eighth-place point at 1:01.24. Abbigail Fye of Ladysmith won in 51.09 seconds.

Hadassah Nelson added a half-point to Rib Lake’s team total by tying Paige Hodkeiwicz of Northland Pines for eighth in the high jump. She cleared 4-2. Camryn Glenzer and Tlusty also hit 4-2 and tied for 10th. Madison Grzanna cleared 4 feet and tied for 14th.

Gumz got off a throw of 28 feet to tie Butternut’s Bailey Bebeau for ninth in the shot put and Tessa Krause was 19th at 24-4. Anna Martin ran the 400-meter dash for the first time and took 10th in 1:21.69. Ziarra Schrader improved to 66-2 in the discus and finished 12th.

Ladysmith won the meet with 162.5 points, well ahead of Phillips (117) and Chequamegon (75). Northland Pines was fourth with 66 points, followed by Hurley (40), Rib Lake and Mercer (36.5), South Shore (34), Bruce (33), Flambeau (32), Prentice (19.5), Washburn (14), Butternut (12), Winter (5) and Mellen (2).

Barring a late addition to the schedule, Rib Lake is already staring at the Marawood Conference championship meet set for Monday in Stratford. Competition starts at 3:30 p.m.