HAWKS CROSS COUNTRY - Hawks achieve perfect score Saturday, finish 2nd at Marathon

HAWKS CROSS COUNTRY

Perfect scores don’t happen at the varsity level often, no matter the size of the meet, which made Saturday a memorable day for the Prentice-Rib Lake Hawks’ cross country team.

Not only did the Hawks have the top five scorers for the perfect score of 15, they had nine of the first 10 finishers while dominating the six-team Chequamegon Invitational Saturday morning.

The host Screaming Eagles were a distant second with 53 points, Hurley had 74 and Washburn, Butternut and Mellen did not have full teams in the meet, which was the Hawks’ second meet in three days.

Teammates Kaleb Scott, Jack Regier and Henry Regier fought to the finish for individual championship. Scott wound up nipping Jack Regier by one second to win the race in 17:09, while Henry Regier wound up third in 17:16. Truman Smith won the race for fourth in the next small pack of runners, finishing in 18:46, six seconds ahead of Hagan Isaacson.

The first non-Hawk, Chequamegon’s Cooper Michalski, was sixth in 18:55. The next four Hawks filled out the top 10. Heston Hueckman was seventh at 19:11, followed by Elijah Scott (19:13), Jeremy Wiitala (19:14) and Jackson Schutt, who came in a 19:22, 24 seconds ahead of his time from the team’s meet two days earlier at Marathon.

In all, 16 Hawks completed the boys race. Connor and Seamus Highfill were 13th and 14th in the field of 41 with times of 19:47 and 20:06. Dene Zuleger was 21st in 21:04, cutting 39 seconds off his time from Thursday. Eliah Harding was 24th at 21:29, Mason Hause was 28th at 22:09, Kevin Head was 33rd at 23:21 and Riley Johnson was 38th in 25:59.

Prentice-Rib Lake had two entrants in the girls race. Kylie Orysen won the race for second place, hitting the finish line in 21:53, just ahead of Washburn’s Aurora Olson (21:56) and Chequamegon’s Adison Bablick (21:57). No one was catching Washburn’s Cassie Claremboux, who won the race in 20:54.

Hawk Kloey Paul was 14th in 27:20, setting a personal-best time through the season’s first three meets.

Chequamegon won the meet with 27 points, two fewer than Washburn, while Hurley totaled 70 points. The Hawks and Butternut were incomplete.

Prentice-Rib Lake won the girls middle school race with Ella Orysen (14:41), Molly Adams (15:08) and Greta Regier (15:28) taking the top three spots out of 23 runners. The Hawks outscored Chequamegon 26-31. The boys were third with 55 points, trailing Chequamegon (25) and Hurley (52). Alex Meyer was eighth in 16:17 and Cade Paul was ninth in 16:24.

The Hawks are off until the Sept. 17 Stratford Invitational. The Smiley Invitational at Wausau East will follow on Sept. 21.

Marathon Invite

On Thursday, the Hawks saw the major time drops they expected going from Timm’s Hill a week earlier to the much flatter and tamer Nine Mile Recreation Area course. The boys finished an impressive second in the team standings, trailing only Division 1 squad D.C. Everest, 39-55.

The Hawks were well ahead of another Division 1 program, Marshfield, who was third with 90 points. The next Division 3 team was Marathon, who was fourth with 93 points, well ahead of fifth-place Tomahawk (138) and sixth-place Waupaca (138).

The Hawks were again led by their top trio of Kaleb Scott and the Regier brothers. Jack Regier was the team’s top finisher this time, finishing sixth in a field of 143 runners with his time of 16:27. Henry Regier was seventh at 16:33 and Scott was eighth in 16:59.

A year ago in this meet, Jack and Henry Regier both finished in 19:56 and Scott’s time was 18:31.

Elijah Scott was Prentice-Rib Lake’s fourth scorer Thursday, taking 20th in 17:55. Smith got the fifth spot, placing 24th in 18:08 and Isaacson was the sixth man at 18:25, good for 27th.

Waupaca’s Owen Lenckl won the race in 15:51, five seconds ahead of Nolan Waltz from Three Lakes-Phelps. D.C. Everest’s Evan Fuchs (16:20) and Damen Schultz (16:21) and Marshfield’s Owen Hoerneman (16:21) rounded out the top five.

The Hawks entered their full roster of 16 in this race. Hueckman was 37th in 18:42, just ahead of Wiitala’s time of 18:49. Connor Highfill was 44th at 19:05 and Eliah Harding took 50th in 19:29. Seamus Highfill placed 55th in a time of 19:41 and Schutt began his 2024 season with a 59th-place time of 19:46.

Hause was 91st in 21:34, Zuleger was 95th in 21:43, Head was 104th in 22:19 and Johnson was 129th at 25:40.

Merrill (210), Wittenberg-Birnamwood (228) and Port Edwards (263) were seventh through ninth in the team standings, while Athens and Three Lakes-Phelps were incomplete.

Kylie Orysen was 12th out of 93 competitors in the girls race. Her time was 20:48, about 2:37 faster than her Timm’s Hill time. Paul was 71st in 27:39 and Avie Schutt was 80th for the Hawks at 29:31. Both cut about three minutes off their Timm’s Hill times.

Sienna Timm of Waupaca won the race in 19:18. Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Rory Salvesen (19:52), Marshfield’s Natalie Scharenbroch (19:52), Auburndale’s Rose Hasenohrl (20:05) and Marathon’s Shilo Blake (20:05) were the top five finishers.

Marshfield won the team trophy with 55 points, easily outscoring the rest of the top five, Wittenberg-Birnamwood (79), Tomahawk (89), Auburndale (93) and Marathon (138).

Prentice-Rib Lake was third in the middle school girls meet with 69 points, trailing Wittenberg-Birnamwood (48) and Waupaca (54). Ella Orysen was third in 14:17, Greta Regier was sixth in 14:42 and Adams was a second behind her. The boys were seventh as Meyer was 31st (15:58), Cade Paul was 34th (16:25) and Angus Peterson was 36th (16:35).

Kylie Orysen