Hawks easily outrun boys competition at Chequamegon meet

HAWKS CROSS COUNTRY

A fast course gave the Prentice-Rib Lake cross country runners the opportunity to set season-best times throughout the lineup and the boys took full advantage, winning the team title in Saturday’s Chequamegon Invitational.

Kaleb Scott collected his first varsity win while the Hawks’ 18-man crew nearly filled half of the boys field of 41 runners. Prentice-Rib Lake topped the team standings with just 20 points to outscore the host Screaming Eagles by 27 and Hurley (71). Flambeau and Mellen did not field complete teams.

Scott’s winning time of 17:42.7 was his fastest time in four meets this fall and by a wide 49-second margin. He got to the finish line 43.6 seconds ahead of Flambeau’s Dakota Nelson in their second head-to-head meeting of the fall. Scott beat Nelson by just six seconds at the Aug. 24 Timm’s Hill Invitational.

The Hawks’ Jack Regier was third in 18:47.2, 2.5 seconds ahead of Chequamegon’s Jayden Oscar. Hawk freshman Hagan Isaacson was the team’s third finisher, taking fifth overall in 19:12.1.

Heston Hueckman (19:44.8) and Evan Lord (19:46.8) closed out the team scoring by placing seventh and eighth behind Chequamegon’s Robert Schienebeck (19:42.4). Hawks Jeremy Wiitala (20:08.9) and Eliah Harding (20:24.4) were ninth and 10th.

The top 20 runners included 12 Hawks. Truman Smith made a big jump, taking 13th in 20:58.1, cutting more than a minute and a half off his previous best time. Connor Highfill was 14th in 21:00.3, cutting two minutes off his previous best mark of the fall. Seamus Highfill was 15th in 21:05.2, shaving off about 65 seconds, Matthew Schmidt was 17th in 21:10.5 and Hardy Hueckman was 19th at 21:25.8, also knocking off a minute from his previous best at Marathon Aug. 31.

Aidan Hause was 7.9 seconds away from the top 20, taking 21st in 21:40.1. Korbin Thums was 25th at 22:04.4, about 2:20 better than his previous best and Nick Nikkila was 28th at 22:30.9, also about 2:20 better than his Marathon time. Riley Johnson was 34th at 24:11.2, newcomer Zach Starkey was 39th at 26:38.4 in his first meet and Kevin Head was 41st at 27:59.5, his best time by more than two minutes.

Kylie Orysen was fourth out of 18 runners in the girls varsity race with her time of 22:10.4, an improvement of 2:31 over her race in Phillips four days earlier. Olivia Lopez sped to her best-ever time of 23:43.2 to take ninth and Kylie Suess, another new face, was 17th in her first race at 30:03.8.

Chequamegon star Autumn Michalski won the race in 18:15.8, while Flambeau’s Autumn Lawton was second in 21:36.9 and Butternut’s Caitlynn BeBeau was third in 21:46.5.

Chequamegon had a perfect team score of 15, while Hurley had 45 points. The Hawks, Butternut, Flambeau and Mellen were incomplete.

Prentice-Rib Lake was second in the middle school girls standings with 47 points, three better than Ashland. Chequamegon won with 29 points. Ella Orysen was third in 15:33.5, Statia Isaacson was seventh in 16:24.8 and Mackenzie Lyons was 13th in 17:13.2.

The Hawks (51) were third in the boys standings behind Chequamegon (33) and Ashland (42). They were led by Dene Zuleger, second in 13:48.4, Mason Hause, third in 13:52.8 and Waylon Thielke, 16th in 17:08.6.

The Hawks will run with a big crowd Saturday at the 67th annual Bill Smiley Invitational hosted by Wausau East High School. Competing in Division 3, the day meet will start with boys JV competition at 8:30 a.m., followed by the boys varsity at 9 a.m., the girls varsity at 9:25 a.m. and the girls JV at 10 a.m.

Another large meet, the Barron Invitational, follows on Sept. 21.