RIB LAKE TRACK & FIELD PREVIEW - Distance crew, Henderson lead boys; Tlusty back for the girls

RIB LAKE TRACK & FIELD PREVIEW

Some tough March timing has the Rib Lake track and field program trying to catch up a bit early in the season, but the Redmen will still have plenty of time to reach the ultimate goal of peaking when it really matters at season’s end.

With the program’s new head coach Todd Henderson still leading Rib Lake’s boys basketball team in sectional play and spring break coinciding with the official first week of the WIAA season March 10-14, the Redmen really didn’t get into the swing of things until last week. They did get the required minimum of practices in to be able to compete this week and now the process begins to see just where all of the pieces will fit on the 2025 boys and girls teams.

The boys opened with a seventh-place finish at Tuesday’s Marshfield Indoor Invitational, while the girls will be in Marshfield for their meet today, Thursday.

The full team heads to UW-Stout Saturday for the Northern Badger Small Schools Invitational, a large meet that brings in several top teams and athletes from northwest Wisconsin and beyond.

Henderson takes over the program following the resignation last fall by Jonah Campbell, who had held the head track and field job for six seasons. Steve Griswold is his top assistant.

Rib Lake’s 2025 teams start the year with a little more than 30 studentathletes with the majority of them being boys.

“We’re looking at a solid group,” Henderson said of the boys team. “We’re going to have a strong group of distance runners coming off their cross country season. It’ll be exciting to see what they can do in those distance events and possibly the 4x400 and 4x800 relays and in the mile and two-mile races once they can get outside and compete there.”

Several members from the fall’s WIAA Division 3 state runner-up cross country team are on the roster, including seniors Jack Regier and Connor Highfill, junior Kaleb Scott and sophomores Henry Regier, Jackson Schutt, Truman Smith and Seamus Highfill to name a few. Unfortunately, Henry Regier is injured and may not be able to compete this spring, but distance events should be an area where Rib Lake is able to score points.

Another likely reliable point scorer is junior Jed Henderson, who won the Marawood Conference high jump title last year and qualified for the WIAA Division 3 state meet in the event. He got as high as 6 feet, 1 inch on three occasions last spring, including the sectional meet at Cameron, where he placed fourth to punch his state ticket.

“Hopefully he’ll just go out, do his thing and jump,” Todd Henderson said of Jed.

From there, spots are there to be filled. Junior Gus Zuleger and sophomores Isaiah Hubbard, Riley Schatz, Alan (Kevin) Head and Riley Johnson all contributed last year in sprints and field events.

Juniors Chris Krause and Jack Dananay and sophomores David Pichea and Cameron Menning are additions to the boys roster along with freshmen Kylan Bartelt, Dene Zuleger, Alex Krueger, Jaden Briggs, Ian Weber, Rylan Schaelzka-Lenz and Lawson Carlson.

“Lawson Carlson is an incoming freshman that has some potential with shot and discus,” Todd Henderson said. “He’s a big strong kid. He’ll need to learn some technique and grow. I think he has potential as he grows and works through the program.”

After a ninth-place team finish in the Marawood Conference and a 10th-place WIAA Division 3 regional finish in 2024 team results, Rib Lake’s girls will be hurt by a lack of experience and depth this year. Sprints, hurdles and jumps could be the team’s strongest areas.

That group has no seniors. Junior Emma Tlusty is a certain leader for this year’s team after earning third place in the Marawood last May in the 100-meter high hurdles. She was ninth in the conference in the long jump.

“She has some goals and hopes of making some waves,” Henderson said. “She’s really focused on hurdles and we’ll probably have her in a couple of sprinting events and maybe high jump and long jump.”

Junior Hadassah Nelson and sophomore Maddie Rademacher also return after strong 2024 seasons.

Rademacher got honorable mention in the Marawood last year with a fourthplace finish in the high jump at a seasonbest 4-10. Nelson was seventh at 4-6 that day, but she got as high as 4-8 during the year. Tlusty and Rademacher were just under 15 feet with long jumps at times last spring. Rademacher hurdled, Nelson threw some discus for Rib Lake last year and both have sprinted.

Sophomore Kloey Paul is another returning athlete on the roster. She and Tlusty were on Rib Lake’s sectionalqualifying 400-meter relay team.

From there, the Redmen will learn what the newcomers and even some foreign exchange students can do in the next few weeks. Freshman Kylie Scheithauer is expected to give Rib Lake a shot putter. Sophomores Avelyn Schutt, Ella Grzanna and Sydney Briggs, juniors Maria Bisco and Clea Legris and freshman Lucia Nevarez round out the girls roster.

“That is going to be the interesting part to see what we have there,” coach Henderson said. “We’ll kind of have to wait and see how the first couple of meets go and get a feel for we’re they’re at. It’s been tricky to even get outside and get some times in some sprints.”

There is one more indoor meet on Rib Lake’s schedule, the Marawood meet at UW-Stevens Point on April 7. With luck, the first outdoor meet on the schedule is April 11 at Cornell.

This year’s Marawood meet is in Marathon on Monday, May 19 and again figures to be loaded with tough competition. The road to state looks a little different this year with Rib Lake going to Phillips for regional competition against mainly Marawood North and Northern Lights Conference teams on Tuesday, May 27 and Colby for the sectional meet on Friday, May 30.

“It’s nice that neither one of them are too far away with the regional in Phillips and the sectional at Colby this year,” Henderson said. “We’re looking forward to that and seeing what we can do. Hopefully we’ll peak at the right time of the year.”