State title team honored
Marathon pays homage to boys 2011 hoops squad
By Casey Krautkramer
The Marathon community fondly remembers Cody Hanke’s explosive slam dunk in the 2011 WIAA Division 4 boys state championship at the Kohl Center in Madison.
It highlighted a 11-0 fourth-quarter run to help Marathon rally for a 52-43 win against Grantsburg and capture the school’s first boys basketball state title in 34 years.
Hanke and several of his coaches and teammates from that magical 2010-11 state championship season returned to the Marathon High School gym on Friday night to be recognized as the boys basketball program’s proud past. The Little Red Raiders performed during halftime of the Marathon varsity boys basketball squad’s 78-32 win against Abbotsford, to signify the Marathon boys basketball program’s promising future.
Marathon’s 2010-11 boys basketball team trailed Grantsburg, 41-38, with seven minutes left in the WIAA Division 4 state championship. The Red Raiders opened their 11-0 scoring run on senior guard Brody Hurtis’ three pointer to tie the game at 41, followed by a layup by senior forward Cedric Lechleitner and a jumper by Hanke. Then Hanke took a pass from senior Koleman Schilling and threw down his dunk that gave Marathon a 47-41 lead and all the momentum it needed.
Jeff Reiche, who was Marathon’s varsity head boys coach during the 2010-11 state title season, explained his greatest memories of that state championship victory against Grantsburg.
“Brody Hurtis’ three-point hoop with just under four minutes to play was pivotal, as it tied the game and gave us new life,” Reiche said. “Without him hitting that shot, it would have been easy to go down six points with only minutes to play in the final. This of course led to Koleman Schilling’s steal, who tapped the ball to Hurtis, who in turn hit Hanke for a thunderous dunk which gave us the momentum for the final three minutes.
“Ironically, many people have told me a transformer blew in Marathon at the very moment of Cody Hanke’s dunk, which supposedly blacked out the remainder of the game for people watching it on television in Marathon City.”
Cody Hanke lives in Marathon with his wife, Gizelle, and their ninemonth- old son, Jackson. Cody detailed his favorite memory from the 2010-11 boys basketball state championship season.
“My greatest memory was running out on the Kohl Center court for the first time; I had chills running down my back,” he said in reference to Marathon’s 68-50 WIAA Division 4 state semifinal win against Oostburg. “I’d been attending state tournaments ever since I was in second grade, so it was pretty amazing to finally live out my dream of playing in the state tournament.”
Brody Hurtis currently resides in Wausau but he’ll soon be moving to Denver, Colo., for work. On Friday night, he conversed with his 2010-11 Marathon teammate, Cedric Lechleitner, about a play they drew up before the team’s state semifinal against Oostburg that almost worked. “I lobbed the ball up to Cedric for an ally top dunk on the first play of the state semifinal, but we barely misconnected on the play,” Hurtis said. “We always say to each other, ‘Man, that would’ve been an awesome play to begin the state tournament at the Kohl Center.’” Brody recalled his greatest moment during the 2010-11 season.
“When the buzzer went off at the end of the state championship, I looked at my teammates and we were just overjoyed with all the hard work and commitment we put into the season, and it was just an instant realization that we won the state title.”
Marathon barely missed advancing to the WIAA Division 3 state tournament two straight years in 2009 and 2010. Marathon lost to Manitowoc Roncalli, 54-43, in the 2009 sectional championship game and to Brillion, 66-63, in the 2010 sectional title, both played at Ashwaubenon High School.
Coach Reiche realized after the 2009-10 season that playing man-to-man defense wasn’t going to get the Red Raiders to state.
“Going into the 2010-11 season, we had changed our entire defensive philosophy,” he said. “I’ve been a manto- man coach my whole life and I just said, ‘I don’t think we can win a state championship if we continue to play defense the way we are playing.’ So we invested everything we had into playing a 1-3-1 zone defense.”
Marathon’s 2010-11 squad finally got over winning the sectional championship hump with a 63-37 WIAA Division 4 win against Oshkosh Lourdes at Stevens Point Area High School, in order to advance to the state tournament.
“It was so difficult after those two sectional championship losses to start all over again in the next years, after coming so close at making it to the state tournament, so it was probably the best feeling to get over that sectional final hump,” Reiche said.
Cody Hanke spoke on Friday about his 2010-11 Marathon team’s drive to win the state chanmpionship.
“After coming up short in the sectional finals during my sophomore and junior seasons, we just wanted it a little more when I was a senior,” Hanke said. “We were a good unit as a whole that played good team basketball, and everything just kind of clicked for us that season. I think everyone had the right mindset and knew their role on the team, and they fulfilled it to their best; everyone knew what they had to do and I think as a result we just flourished as a team.”
Coach Reiche said Friday the 2010-11 team approached things differently, compared to his Red Raider squads in the previous two seasons.
“We didn’t look at the whole as much as the parts; we focused on the next game and being the best we could on any given night and adopting the mentality of let’s be the last one standing,” Reiche said. “I really believe at the end of the state tournament we looked around and said to ourselves, who are we playing next and not really realizing we were done because there were no teams left? Maybe that’s a good thing but that’s kind of how we needed to approach it, maybe to avoid the letdown we had the two previous years.”
Reiche hugged his Marathon varsity assistant coach, Jack Culhane, after the final buzzer sounded on the team’s state championship victory against Grantsburg.
Culhane couldn’t attend the 2010-11 squad’s reunion on Friday night in Marathon because he was coaching at his alma mater, Rushford-Peterson High School in Minnesota. He is an assistant varsity boys basketball coach at Rushford-Peterson.
Reiche, who now lives in Cable, outlined his most memorable experiences coaching Marathon’s varsity boys basketball team during its state tournament run. The 2010-11 Red Raiders finished the season with a 27-1 record.
“The journey over the years at Marathon which included working with players, parents, coaches and the community, by far, exceeded any joy or sense of satisfaction from the destination of winning the state championship. Lasting friendships are much more meaningful.”
Raiders destroy Falcons
Marathon’s 2021-22 varsity boys basketball team easily beat Abbotsford, 78-32, on Friday night at home.
Senior guard Jaden Koeller led the Red Raiders with 23 points, followed by sophomore center Grant Warren with 15. Junior Mason Seehafer contributed nine points and sophomore Cooper Hoeksema added eight. Senior Ben Robbins paced Marathon with seven steals and five assists, while senior Nathan Hanke had four assists.
Marathon loses big to I-S
The Marathon Red Raiders fell behind early, 36-9, at halftime to the Iola-Scandinavia Thunderbirds on the road Tuesday, and they never recovered.
Marathon fell, 63-30, to undefeated Iola-Scandinavia, which is ranked No. 4 in this week’s wissports.net Division 4 poll.
Parker Prahl led the Thunderbirds, 18-0, with a game-high 28 points and 11 rebounds against the Red Raiders, who are now 16-3 overall this season.
Iola-Scandinavia is in the same WIAA Division 4 sectional semifinal as Marathon and Stratford, so there’s a possibility the Red Raiders will face the Thunderbirds again down the road.
DRIVING INTO THE HEART OF THE DEFENSE- Marathon senior guard Noah Gage maneuvers through the teeth of Abbotsford’s defense for a shot attempt during the first half of Friday’s game.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER
