Raiders vying for Marawood title

By Casey Krautkramer

Marathon’s varsity golf team remains in contention to win the Marawood Conference championship this spring. Luke Jacobson is in the midst of his sixth season as Marathon’s head coach and his assistant coaches are Brett Kage, Todd Stoffel and Dalton Lang. Jacobson said his golf team’s last two of four conference meets will determine if it captures this year’s Marawood Conference title.

“We play this Friday at Inshalla and on Monday at Wausau Country Club,” he said. “We are 11 strokes back after the first two conference meets but with 36 holes left there is a lot of time to make up ground. Today (Monday) at the Stanley Invite we took third place with a school record 336. Senior Alex Pawlowicz was 10th with an 83, junior Blake Kraft was ninth with an 82 and senior Dylan Dodson was eighth with an 81.”

Marathon’s other top returning golfers this season are seniors Jacob Rayner, Jake Lepak and Aiden Stank along with juniors Myles Handrick and Chenpieng Phakitthong.

The Red Raiders have plenty of experienced golfers back this season.

“We have two golfers in Alex Pawlowicz and Dylan Dodson that have played a lot of varsity golf and have participated at the highest level twice at state,” Jacobson said. “Jacob Rhyner learned a lot last year playing in his first playoff golf meets and that will be valuable for us this year. Blake Kraft is developing into a golfer that could be a No. 1 on a lot of teams and he is growing into a more complete and experienced golfer as a junior. The fun thing as always is we have about 10 golfers that could fit in the mix on varsity and they will get their shot throughout the season. Alex Pawlowicz’s biggest contribution this year may not be his golf swing but his roll as the leader of the team. Even last year as our No. 1 golfer he still had seniors to lean on. His golf speaks for itself and he works very hard. That work ethic and competitiveness is a motivating factor for his teammates and I am excited for him to help lead us to where we want to be.”

There are several Red Raiders competing for varsity and junior varsity spots this spring including seniors Marcos Cruz-Bloom and Logan Schmidt; junior Braxton Jourdan; sophomores Markus Sleiter, Cameron Pestka, Mya Buchberger, Cassius Ninabuck, Luke Lagan, Landen Altfillisch, Emmitt Lepak, Chevy Cook, Parker Hale and Karsan Huebsch and freshmen Abram Jacobson, Will Bretzke, Sara Marek and TJ Linder.

Marathon last won the Marawood Conference championship in 2022 but the Red Raiders placed second before conference champions Newman Catholic last season. “Even though Newman lost four seniors from last year’s incredible team, they have always had a great golf program so they will be fighting to win the conference again,” Jacobson said. “Prentice is maybe the most talented team from top to bottom and Assumption has seniors that have played four years on varsity. If you add all of that up it will be a very competitive year. We hope our experience will carry us through and we can be playing our best during the conference meets.”

Marathon’s golf team made back-toback state tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022. Jacobson said Shane Sonnentag was the last Red Raider to compete as an individual golfer at state in 2018.

“State is a very realistic goal for us this year, but like any year we’ll need to be playing our best golf when it matters most,” Jacobson said. “Golf is a sport that is very difficult to predict on any given day. The best players in the world can shoot five to 10 strokes different from one day to the next. Last year we were able to shoot our best rounds in the sectional, but unfortunately we had some very good senior driven teams in front of us. This year I believe we are an experienced and senior driven team. If we can trust our teammates and progress the way we want through the schedule, I like the opportunity we have.”

MARATHON GOLF- Introducing the 2024 Red Raiders golf team. Golfers pictured, from left to right, front row: Chenpieng Phakitthong, Chevy Cook, Karsan Huebsch, Will Bretzke and Myles Handrick; second row: Landen Altfillish, Luke Lagan, Blake Kraft, Cameron Pestka, Jacob Rhyner, Mya Buchberger and Sara Marek; third row: Marcos Cruz Bloom, Braxton Jourdan, Jake Lepak, Dylan Dodson, Abram Jacobson, Alex Pawlowicz and Aiden Stanek; back row: Cassius Ninabuck, Parker Hale, Logan Schmidt, Emmitt Lepak, TJ Linder and Markus Sleiter.

PHOTO BY STACY STUBBE