Hawks tackle new course at Phillips; boys 5th, girls are 7th

PHILLIPS CC INVITATIONAL

Prentice-Rib Lake’s young boys team finished a solid fifth, while the Hawks placed seventh in the girls race at Tuesday’s Phillips Invitational held at a new site this year at Moonlight Lane.

The Hawks saw a handful of teams they’ll see next month in the Marawood Conference meet, which Phillips is also scheduled to host on Oct. 14. A Marawood team, Stratford, won the girls team title in Tuesday’s 12-team meet, while Ladysmith took the boys race in convincing fashion.

Prentice-Rib Lake senior Adam Granberg came within a stride of breaking the 20-minute barrier, finishing 13th in 20:01, while freshman Jack Regier cracked the top 25 in a field of 76 runners with his time of 21:04.1. He was 24th, a tenth of a second ahead of Ladysmith’s Sawyer Cherney.

Ryan Buehler was third among Prentice- Rib Lake’s available crew of seven runners, taking 31st in 22:04.6, while Ben Petersen was 37th at 22:45.1, Matthew Schmidt was 45th in 23:24.1, Elijah Scott was 52nd in 23:52.9 and Connor Highfill was 68th in 27:18.9. Schmidt, Scott and Highfill are all freshmen.

Butternut’s Mike Brown easily won the race in 18:01.2, while Blake Prince of Ladysmith won a heated race for second in 19:12.6, just ahead of Auburndale’s Charles Jewell (19:18.7) and Maverick Hoogland (19:19.5) and Connor Gabay (19:20.7) of Phillips.

Ladysmith compiled just 34 team points to collect the win, while Auburndale edged Phillips 60-65 for second place and Stratford was comfortably in fourth place with 96 points. The Hawks had 135 points to finish ahead of Drummond (147), Hurley (187), Thorp-Gilman (192) and Edgar (257). Butternut and South Shore did not have scoring squads.

Sophomore Luke Schraufnagel led the Thorp team with a 29th-place time of 21:35.4, while Jacob Barth was 32nd at 22:09.2 and Braxton Starck was 42nd at 23:10.7.

Kylee Goodrich, one of four Hawks’ seniors competing Tuesday, led Prentice-Rib Lake with a 26th-place time of 26:08.5. She was just 0.4 seconds away from a top-25 mark in the 83-runner field. Abby Schuetz, one of the Hawks’ two freshman runners Tuesday, took 35th in 27:14.2, while senior Leah Thums was 48th at 28:14.6.

Senior Lydia Holm was 68th at 30:48.1, senior Ryean Gorski was 78th at 34:02.8 and freshman Amy Espinoza was 81st in 35:51.3.

Edgar’s Morgan Schnelle pulled away from the pack to win in 21:24.2, well ahead of Phillips junior Allie Adomaitis (21:58.9). Auburndale’s Jordyn Karl (22:12.2), Ladysmith’s Grace Pearson (22:37.3) and Auburndale’s Autumn Richardson (23:00.2) filled out the top five individuals.

Stratford’s 38 points easily outscored the host Loggers in the team competition. Edgar was third with 82 points, followed by South Shore (97), Ladysmith (129), Hurley (163), Prentice-Rib Lake (195), Drummond (197) and Thorp-Gilman (200). Auburndale, Mercer and Butternut were incomplete.

The Thorp-Gilman co-op was led by sophomore Pepper Werner, who posted her best time in three meets this season at 27:45 and finished 41st. Senior Kate Schraufnagel was 43rd in 27:56.4, Rachel Boehlke was 54th in 28:48.2 and Gilman senior Abby Krug was 55th in a seasonbest 28:48.3. Sophomore Cera Philson was 57th at 29:01.4.

With 33 points, Prentice-Rib Lake won the boys middle school team title over Phillips (40) and third-place Thorp-Gilman (86). Henry Regier led the Hawks by taking third in 10:29.3, while Evan Lord, Hagen Isaacson, Eliah Harding, Truman Smith and Jackson Schutt packed up to place eighth through 12th. Thorp-Gilman’s Preston Olsen was 13th at 11:34.

Hawk Kylie Orysen led local girls by taking fourth in the girls middle school race at 12:16.1, 23 seconds behind winner Leah Harper of Phillips.

Prentice-Rib Lake is scheduled to run at Chequamegon on Saturday and Stratford next Tuesday, while Thorp-Gilman has meets in Stanley-Boyd and Fall Creek on its schedule today, Thursday, and Saturday.