The Hatchet girls came up with an excellent performance in Saturday’s GNC Meet at Antigo, but their decade-plus winning streak was still snapped by Lakeland.
Medford narrowly edged the THS boys for second place, but Bryan Tomek repeated as GNC Runner of the Year with his 16:27 title performance.
“Our varsity girls really wanted to add another title to their school record 11-straight conference string, but it wasn’t meant to be as Lakeland brought too much to the table on the front end and their #4 runner had a phenomenal race to go with it,” THS coach John Zuelsdorf said. “Dani (Whiting) was able to get things done up front and Alex (Zedler) was in a great position all race, but Lakeland was just too strong.
“I can’t ever remember placing all five scorers on the All-Conference team and not winning the meet. We even had our freshmen successfully inflating other teams scores, including Lakeland. I guess that 12th straight title just wasn’t meant to be!”
Whiting (3rd, 16:12) and Zedler (6th, 16:38) reached the First Team, and Claire Kuehn (11th, 16:59), Emmy Larson (12th, 17:15) and Talyn Jones (14th, 17:29) all picked up Second Team. Rylie Swan (15th, 17:38) missed by one spot and Maggee Renn (17th, 17:46) was close behind.
“It was great to see Dani, Alex, Claire, Emmy, and Talyn achieve All-Conference honors and our freshmen Rylie and Maggee come ‘oh-so-close’ to making those honors,” Zuelsdorf said.
Tomek led from wire-to-wire in his best performance of the season. Troy Van Strydonk (9th, 17:51) earned Second Team, and Jacob McGuire (18:25), Austin Kaiser (18:27) and Kyle Klopatek (18:32) ran a 19-21 bloc to cap the score. Alex Johnson (26th, 18:45) and Tyler Wittmann (29th, 18:56) also competed.
“Bryan ran a strategically perfect race, going out a little more conservatively and then surging just before the mile to shake all but one runner and then again at 3000 meters to drop the Antigo runner that tried going with him,” Zuelsdorf said. “He has put a lot of time and effort into this sport in the last four years, it was great to see it pay-off again for him.
“Troy really made a big move mid-race to move from 17th to top ten by the last stretch and brought it home strong to earn all-conference accolades. To see our pack of boys working so well together was gratifying and the ultimate reason we were able to upend conference rivals Rhinelander and Antigo. We nearly caught Medford in the process.”
Tomahawk took wins in both JV races, the boys with a perfect score from sweeping the top five spots and the girls with a 1-2-3 start.
Team standings-Girls-Lakeland 29, Tomahawk 40, Mosinee 91, N. Pines 100, Rhinelander 103, Antigo inc., Medford inc………Boys-Lakeland 53, Medford 68, Tomahawk, Antigo 72, Rhinelander 110, Mosinee 135, N. Pines 163.
The sectional race will be run in Waupaca on Saturday.
“We had 14 athletes run P.R.’s at Antigo,” Zuelsdorf said. “We are running fast when we are supposed to and peaking at the right time. The boys Sectional team race will be dominated by Freedom and Oconto Falls. We look to improve on our finish from 2012.
“However, it’s going to be an exciting girl’s Sectional race at Waupaca with Lakeland, Clintonville, Fox Valley Lutheran, Freedom, Colby, and Tomahawk all looking to advance. It’s going to be the teams that do the little things right on race day that advance.”
State-ranked teams include Freedom (4th) and Oconto Falls (9th) for the boys, and Lakeland (14th) for the girls.