Loggers trip up Hawks in Phillips; Marathon meet a good one

HAWKS CROSS COUNTRY

The Phillips Loggers got a little revenge Tuesday, using the home-course advantage to run past the Prentice-Rib Lake Hawks in a small three-team meet at the Moonlight Lane Course.

In the boys race, Phillips had the top two finishers in Gavin Esterholm (17:52.8) and Maverick Hoogland (18:28.1) and had the seventh through ninth finishers to edge the Hawks 27-35 in the team scoring while Drummond was a distant third with 70 points.

Prentice-Rib Lake, in its home meet at Timm’s Hill on Aug. 24, outscored Phillips to win that night.

The Hawks gave themselves a shot by getting Kaleb Scott to place third in 19:09.1, Henry Regier to place fourth in 19:50.7 and Jack Regier to place fifth in 20:00.3. But that opening was closed with the Loggers getting a seventh-place finish from Julian Ellingen (20:12.7), eighth from James Vollendorf (20:19.40 and ninth from Arlo Berens (20:21.8).

For the Hawks, positioning for the team’s top positions differed for the third straight meet.

Freshman Hagan Isaacson moved up a spot from Thursday’s meet in Marathon to finish as the team’s fourth man in 20:39.9, good for 11th overall. Elijah Scott was the fifth scorer, taking 12th at 20:48.8, while Evan Lord (21:03.1) and Heston Hueckman (21:06.1) were the team’s sixth and seventh finishers, taking 13th and 14th overall.

Eliah Harding was 17th in 21:59.4, Jeremy Wiitala was 18th in 22:11.6 and Seamus Highfill moved up to the team’s 10th position while finishing 21st in 22:38.3. Jackson Schutt (23:00.3), Truman Smith (23:02.7), Matthew Schmidt (23:08.5) and Connor Highfill (23:09.1) were 23rd through 26th, while Aidan Hause (23:36.1) and Hardy Hueckman (23:36.4) were 28th and 29th.

Korbin Thums took 36th in 27:32.8 while Riley Johnson (29:52.9), Nick Nikkila (30:09.4) and Kevin Head (35:08.4) closed out the individual results by placing 38th, 39th and 40th.

Drummond was led by sixth-place finisher Ben Giesregen, a freshman who finished in 20:00.4.

Phillips earned a perfect score of 15 in the girls race, which included both Hawks runners and one from Butternut. Kylie Orysen finished her first race of the fall for Prentice-Rib Lake. The 2022 state qualifier finished fifth in 24:41.5 behind Butternut’s Caitlynn BeBeau (24:25). Olivia Lopez was 10th for the Hawks in 26:54.5.

Leah Harper (22:54.2), Sarah Knaack (23:26.9) and Addie Gabay (23:51.6) of Phillips were the top three finishers.

Prentice-Rib Lake was third in the boys middle school race with 56 points, trailing Phillips (23) and Drummond (50). Dene Zuleger was third in 11:06.3 and Mason Hause was fifth in 11:08.5 to lead the Hawks. Phillips had a 24-33 edge over the Hawks in the girls race. Molly Adams (12:28.8) and Ella Orysen (12:37.1) were second and third behind Logger Keely Gabay (12:18.9) and Statia Isaacson (13:50.9) was seventh.

Prentice-Rib Lake is scheduled to run at Saturday’s Chequamegon Invitational which starts at 9 a.m.

Marathon meet

On Thursday, the Hawks followed up their boys team win at Timm’s Hill on Aug.24 by being the top-ranked small school at the 12-team Marathon Invitational, held at Nine-Mile Recreation Area.

The Hawks totaled 101 points in the boys meet to trail D.C. Everest (35) and Waupaca (67), a Division 2 team. Prentice- Rib Lake was eight points better than Marawood rival and host Marathon, while the Tomahawk Hatchets were a distant fifth with 154 points.

Kaleb Scott got into a tight race to the finish line and was credited with the last spot in the top 10 at 18:31, just ahead of D.C. Everest’s Damen Schultz (18:31) and just behind James Dadabo of Everest (18:30) and Ian Sherman of Waupaca (18:31).

The rest of Prentice-Rib Lake’s scoring came from a pack of four that was separated by 11 seconds. Brothers Henry and Jack Regier came in 19:56 to take 23rd and 24th places, while Elijah Scott was 26th in 19:59. Isaacson was 31st in 20:09 in the field of 139 finishers.

Heston Hueckman (20:21) and Lord (20:28) filled out the Hawks top seven by placing 36th and 37th.

Nolan Waltz of Three Lakes won the individual title with a time of 17:29. He beat Pittsville’s Derek Grossman by 16 seconds. Owen Lencki of Waupaca was third at 18:21, just ahead of Evan Fuchs (18:21) and Adam Gage (18:25) from Everest.

All 20 of the Hawks’ runners competed. Wiitala (21:38) was 53rd, Hause (21:49) was 55th, Schmidt (21:57) was 59th, Harding (22:08) was 63rd and Seamus Highfill (22:10) was 64th.

Hardy Hueckman took 72nd in 22:26, Smith was 74th in 22:31 in his first race of the fall, Schutt was 76th in 22:36, Connor Highfill was 83rd in 23:02, Nikkila was 110th in 24:51, Johnson was 120th at 25:33, Thums was 127th at 26:24 and Head was 133rd in his first race, finishing in 30:06.

All but two of the Hawks who also ran at Timm’s Hill posted improved times.

The rest of the boys team scores were: 6. Athens, 159; 7. Pittsville, 207; 8. Merrill, 216; 9. Wittenberg-Birnamwood, 230; 10. Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, 235; 11. Auburndale, 289; 12. Nekoosa, 319. Three Lakes, Port Edwards and Faith Christian Academy were incomplete.

With Kylie Orysen out with an injury, Lopez was the only Hawk to run in the girls race. The senior placed 38th out of 76 finishers in 26:29.

Assumption’s Lucy Dolan won in 20:01, edging Rory Salveson of Wittenberg- Birnamwood by three seconds. Nora Bushman of Wittenberg-Birnamwood was third in 20:55, followed by Assumption’s Brooklyn Schoenick (21:02) and Jordyn Jaglinski (21:14).

Assumption won the team title with 33 points, followed by Tomahawk (57), Wittenberg- Birnamwood (91), Marathon (97), Auburndale (118) and Abbotsford (136).

Hagan Isaacson