Anxious to see what this young squad can achieve

RIB LAKE TRACK & FIELD PREVIEW

A 702-day span without competition will end Monday for the Rib Lake track and field squads when they attend a sixteam meet hosted by the Stratford Tigers.

After more than a month and a half of preparation for the 2021 season, it’s time to put times and distances to paper.

According to third-year head coach Jonah Campbell, the team is excited to be back after the COVID pandemic ended the 2020 season after one week of practice as are the coaches. The commitment from the student-athletes through a month of contact days, a week of captain-led practices and now into the second week of offi cial practices has showed that.

But the feeling that sits with everyone now is uncertainty as no one quite knows what to expect when competition begins.

“It kinda feels like we didn’t even skip a year, even though we did, just with how practice has been,” Campbell said after practice Monday evening. “Even thinking back when we’re talking about how they performed, you have to pinch yourself and say two years ago, not last year.

“It will be interesting coming into the first meet to see what progress has been made after losing a season and see if kids were able to make progress after missing a year or if it’s coming back kinda right where we left off,” he added. “That’s the part that’s going to be interesting to see, if we went backwards and fell behind or if we went forward. It’s just hard to know exactly where to gauge where things are at. Overall, they’re pretty excited going into the first meet. Hopefully it’s a nice day and we can kick things off on a good note.”

Participation numbers for the Division 3 school are decent with nearly 30 athletes on the roster who are fairly evenly split between boys and girls. Those numbers, however, skew to the young and inexperienced side, which adds to the mysteries of how this season might go for the Redmen.

When Rib Lake last competed in 2019, a senior-dominated boys team made its mark at the WIAA Division 3 state meet with representation in six events, placing in three of them. Only Ashton Keiser remains from that group. He’s one of only four seniors in the entire program that appear on the pre-season roster. There are eight junior names on that roster.

Then it’s all sophomores and freshmen.

With the June 7 Marawood Conference meet not all that far away, it’s going to be a quicker-than-usual process to figure out how all of the pieces fit best.

“There aren’t a lot of seniors and the juniors were all freshmen (two years ago),” Campbell said. “That’s the weird part when you look at it. A lot can happen in that sophomore season. Every school is in the same boat and that’s where it’s going to be interesting, not only for us and how we perform, but to see where the other schools and their programs are at. A lot of the names you’ll see you aren’t even going to remember.”

For the boys, who finished third in the Marawood North and the WIAA Division 3 Gilman regional and tied for third at the WIAA Division 3 Cameron sectional in 2019, Keiser and Bud Schreiner figure to be the senior leaders.

Keiser was a mainstay in Rib Lake’s 400-, 800- and 1,600-meter relay teams as a sophomore. The 400- and 800-meter teams went to state and placed seventh and eighth, respectively. He also hit a peak distance of 20 feet, 3 inches in the long jump.

“Ashton is going to be in two of the sprint relays,” Campbell said. “The relay teams are going to be different but he’s going to be the one returner we have from the state relays. He’s looking for a good open event. That’s going to depend where we’re at after losing a year. He’ll have a chance to prove himself in an open event and we’ll see how he’s progressed in the long jump. He did jump 19 or 20 feet two years ago. We’ll see if he can build on that and get himself in position to make a run.”

Schreiner projects as Rib Lake’s top thrower. He’s grown physically since his sophomore year where he topped out at 30-7.25 in the shot put in early May and 88-5 at the regional meet in discus.

“He was one who did take a shot home (during the lockdown) and worked on it,” Campbell said. “He is comparable to where we ended. It’s all uphill from here trying to build. Hopefully he can finish strong and have a good conference meet and regional meet. We’re looking for him to be one of the guys who gets us points in field events.”

The most familiar name on the girls’ side is senior Jolee Gehrke, a sectional qualifier in high jump in 2019 after clearing a season-best 4-8 at the regional. She was Rib Lake’s top 300-meter hurdler and scored points in the long and triple jumps too.

“She has pretty high expectations for high jump,” Campbell said. “We’re looking at her as a big point scorer on the girls side with her high jump and even her hurdles. She had a pretty decent finish to her year in hurdles and got better as it went on two years ago. That’s a spot she’s looking at to be able to compete and hopefully get the team some points.”

Junior Kylee Goodrich is another familiar name for the girls. Distance running has been her specialty. She finished fifth in the Marawood North in the 800-meter run as a freshman and sixth in the 1,600-meter race.

“Kylee Goodrich is one who got a lot of experience as a freshman running and performed pretty good,” Campbell said. “I know she’s done a lot of off-season running and hopefully that can help her have a successful season in her events.”

The Redmen are excited about an addition to the junior class, Megan Yanko, who was on a 1,600-meter relay team at Elkhorn two years ago that was a Division 1 sectional qualifier. Her freshman sister Amber is also on the team and adds to the running depth.

“Megan moved here last year and she had her eyes set on being on the 4x4 relay team and being in the 400 open,” Campbell said. “We never got that chance last year. We had pretty big goals for her last year as a sophomore. We do have those goals again.” Juniors Lauren Pelnis, Emma Winter and Hannah Schuh bring experience to shot put and discus. Pelnis was also a key relay runner two years ago. Haley Scotty is the fourth senior on the roster. The boys get a strong addition in sophomore Dominick Classen, who moved into the district and competed in both cross country and football in the fall. He could wind up in any number of running events. “He is hanging with Ashton in some of the sprints,” Campbell said. “He’s up there. He’s quick. He was a cross country runner. He’s fast enough to run 100 and 200s and relays, but his body moves like a distance runner.”

Campbell noted freshmen Donovan Sutherland on the boys side and Olivia Lopez as examples of some of the young athletes in the program that have strong potential. It’s just going to take time.

“There’s a lot of hope,” Campbell said. “There are a lot of guys and girls who we can set high expectations for, even as freshmen. They’re good to work with. They’ve already made some good leaps ahead in the last five to six weeks that we’ve been able to practice now.”

The 15 contact days the coaches were able to use this year came in especially handy for Rib Lake’s young team. With them, Campbell said the team has been able to build some foundations with technique they wouldn’t have been otherwise been able to do with just two weeks before the first meet.

Meet number two is scheduled to be held in Phillips on May 6. “It’s kinda felt like you’ve already gone through indoor season, you just never got to compete,” Campbell said. “The hardest part is the number of meets to figure it out. We have, I think, seven meets before conference. It’s going to be hard to run all the relays and get enough practice in the meets for the relays. Do we break the relays apart and see who can run opens? We don’t have as much time as you’d wish.

“Hopefully at some point we get everybody in an open event,” he added. “We get some times on them in practice, but nothing compares to the meet and judging where you are and where you’re at. That’s where the performance comes out.”