HAWKS CROSS COUNTRY - Hawks win easily Saturday, get tested at Marathon meet

They didn’t get a perfect score this year, but with all five scorers among the top seven finishers, the Rib Lake-Prentice boys did capture their third straight team championship at the Chequamegon Cross Country Invitational Saturday.

The addition of Phillips this season in this year’s meet made it unlikely the Hawks would duplicate their 15-point team score from last year, but the Hawks, who have been the state’s top-ranked Division 3 team in the first two weekly coaches polls, came close Saturday with 22 points, well ahead of the second-place Loggers (40), the host Screaming Eagles (76) and Hurley (101). Along with the five scorers being in the top seven, four more Hawks earned top-20 finishes in the field of 45 boys runners.

Gavin Esterholm of Phillips won the boys race in 17:28.4. Kaleb Scott led the pack of Hawks that came in after that. He took second in 17:47.4, while Henry Regier was third in 17:56.5 and Truman Smith was fourth in 18:01.4. After Chequamegon’s Matthew Hirtreiter finished in fifth place at 18:06.2, Rib Lake-Prentice’s Heston Hueckman and Dene Zuleger were next, both with season-best times. Hueckman finished in 18:17.8 and Zuleger continued his strong start to the season at a personal-best 18:20.4.

Jackson Schutt led the next pack of Hawks, finishing 16th in 19:04.9. Seamus Highfill (19:06.6) and Jeremy Wiitala (19:13.2) were 17th and 18th and Eliah Harding took the 20th spot at 19:55.8. Rounding Rib Lake-Prentice’s boys lineup were Ian Weber in 34th place at 22:41.9, Riley Johnson in 39th place at 23:14, Jack Dananay in 40th place at 25:27.4, Kevin Head in 41st at 26:19.9 and Jaden Briggs placing 44th in 30:53.4.

Lake Holcombe, Mellen and Butternut had incomplete teams in the boys race.

Rib Lake-Prentice placed third in the girls race with 59 points, trailing Phillips (25) and Chequamegon (45). Butternut, Lake Holcombe and Hurley were incomplete.

Kylie Orysen challenged for second place but came up a little short behind Logger Tana Henderson. Orysen finished 5.0 seconds behind her at 21:13.7. Leah Harper of Phillips won in 19:53.8. Hailey Bodoh of Chequamegon was fourth, 21 seconds behind Orysen.

Ella Orysen got under the 22-minute mark for the second straight race and placed seventh out of 28 runners in 21:59. Junior Ella Grzanna made a big jump, finishing 15th in 25:03, cutting 1:47 off her time from two days earlier. Emma Tlusty was 22nd at 28:33.9 and Avie Schutt was the team’s fifth scorer, placing 24th in 28:58.4, a season-best time.

Annalee Roder was 26th in 29:18.1 and Sydney Briggs was 28th at 31:31.2.

The Hawks placed third in both middle school races. The boys had 51 points to trail Phillips (38) and Chequamegon (48) and beat Butternut (98). Top-10 finishers included Waylon Thielke, fourth in 9:54.3; Charlie Jacobson, eighth in 10:09.2, and Cade Paul, 10th in 10:19.8.

The girls had 58 points to trail Phillips (18) and Chequamegon (52). Their top-10 finishers were Molly Adams, fifth in 10:40.1; Greta Regier, seventh in 10:46.2, and Zoey Shin, ninth in 10:47.2.

The Hawks will challenge themselves Saturday by attending the Stevens Point Invitational to be held at Standing Rock Park. Middle school races start at 9 a.m., JV races start at 10 a.m. and the varsity girls race is at 11:15 a.m., followed by the boys at 11:50 a.m.

The Hawks are scheduled to be at the Stratford Invite on Tuesday. That starts at 4:30 p.m.

Marathon meet

As expected, almost everyone’s time dropped from the season’s first meet to its second in a solid team performance at Thursday’s Marathon Invitational, held at the Nine Mile County Forest Recreation Area in Wausau.

The boys placed second behind Division 1 Marshfield. The Tigers compiled 47 points while the Hawks had 56, just enough to beat their Marawood Conference rivals from Marathon, who had 59. D.C. Everest was fourth with 60 points.

Henry Regier and Scott again led the Hawks, placing third and fourth, respectively. Regier’s time was 16:49.9, while Scott hit the finish line in 17:05.9 D.C. Everest’s Will VanSlyke won in 16:28.1, while Nolan Waltz of Three Lakes-Phelps was second at 16:38.4.

In a field of 154 runners, Smith placed 11th for the Hawks in 17:52.4. Jackson Schutt was the team’s fourth scorer with a solid time of 18:33.4, good for 22nd place, just ahead of Zuleger’s 23rd-place time of 18:34.6. Highfill was 28th at 18:44.1 and Wiitala was the team’s seventh man, placing 31st at 18:55.9.

Hueckman was 34th at 19:10.6, Harding was 45th at 19:46.1, Weber was 90th at 22:03.4, Johnson was 99th at 22:42.7, Dananay was 120th in 24:30.9, Head was 124th in 24:32.5 and Jaden Briggs was 148th at 30:55.8.

Tomahawk was a distant fifth in the team standings with 169 points, followed by Waupaca (180), Auburndale (215), Wittenberg-Birnamwood (234) and Merrill (248). Five more teams were incomplete.

The Hawks were seventh in the girls race, totaling 171 points. They finished ahead of Merrill (217) and Marathon (229), while Athens and Pittsville were incomplete. Marshfield dominated, scoring just 22 points, well ahead of second-place Tomahawk (75).

Kylie Orysen just missed the top-10. She was ruled to have been 11th, while sharing a time of 21:08.1 with 10th-place finisher Rory Salvesen of Wittenberg-Birnamwood. They were 3.6 seconds ahead of the 12th-place runner, Nora Bushman of Wittenberg-Birnamwood. Marshfield’s Natalie Scharenbroch won in 20:11.7, while Pittsville’s Kailyn Grossman wasn’t far behind at 20:17.4. Pittsville’s Phoenix Losievski (20:34.4), Marshfield’s Adeline Lonsdale (20:41.5) and Tomahawk’s Charlee Lund (20:42.7) completed the top five. Marshfield’s five scorers were among the race’s top 13 runners.

Ella Orysen got into the top 20 in a field of 105, taking 19th in 21:56.6. Tlusty placed 53rd in 25:18, Grzanna was 69th at 26:50.5 and Roder was the fifth scorer in 27:21.7. Anna Scott was 81st at 27:51.8, Avie Schutt was 94th at 29:44.9 and Sydney Briggs was 98th in 31:01.3.

Wittenberg-Birnamwood was third in the team standings with 87 points, followed by Auburndale (105), Three Lakes-Phelps (127) and Waupaca (154).

Rib Lake-Prentice’s boys were second in the middle school race with 49 points, seven more than Marathon Venture Academy. Thielke (12:54.9), Mason Jacobson (12:58.3) and Charlie Jacobson (13:30.4) were third, fifth and ninth. The girls were fourth with 88 points, trailing Waupaca (63), Marathon Venture Academy (70) and Wittenberg-Birnamwood (80). Adams (14:04.7) and Greta Regier (14:12.8) were fourth and fifth.