After a bad-weather cancellation, many of the Hatchets hadn’t hit the competitive trail since August 28 so there was some pre-race concern about Saturday’s 15-team Knudtson Invite in Fall Creek.
It was entirely unwarranted since Tomahawk swept the varsity and JV races for the first time in nearly a decade.
“I have to give a lot of credit to our upperclassmen as they kept their teammates focused and competed with a ‘No Excuses’ attitude,” THS coach John Zuelsdorf said. “It’s that kind of approach we need to foster each week throughout the season to continue being successful.”
“Alex Zedler was very aggressive early on in the girls varsity race and helped push her teammate, Maggee Renn, to reach her potential as the race progressed. Also, Jacob (McGuire) and Andrew (Olson) worked well in the boys race leading Lucas (Tjugum) and Erik (Zedler) through the course and keeping our pack tight, which was ultimately the key component in the boys championship.”
Dani Whiting captured her second individual title of the season by nearly a minute with a 20:12 in the hilly 5K course. Senior Claire Kuehn medaled 8th (22:54) and Emmy Larson (11th, 23:10), Talyn Jones (14th, 23:23), Renn (18th, 23:36), Zedler (21st, 23:41), and Kate Krueger (43rd, 25:10) in the 75-runner varsity field.
Senior captain Tyler Wittmann earned a medal at 7th place in 18:58. Backing him up were: Austin Kaiser (13th, 19:08), McGuire (15th, 19:17), Tjugum (18th, 19:55), Olson (23rd, 20:14) and Zedler (32nd, 20:43).
“I don’t think most people that know anything about our team this year would be surprised with the success of our girls at this point of the season,” Zuelsdorf said. “However, most didn’t expect our boys to be 25-1 at this point.”
The JV girls scored a perfect 15 points while the JV boys tallied 17 to help THS to the all-around title.
Team scores–Girls–Tomahawk 47, E.C. Regis 79, Fall Creek 85, Glenwood City 92, Bloomer 132, Spring Valley 147, Lk. Holcombe 150, Elk Mound 167, Flambeau inc., Liberty Christian inc., Mondovi inc., Boyceville inc., Colfax inc., E.C. Imm. inc., Osseo-Fairchild inc…….Boys–Tomahawk 76, Liberty Christ. 82, Colfax 106, E.C. Imm. 132, Elk Mound 141, Spring Valley 142, Glenwood City 154, Boyceville 157, Bloomer 178, E.C. Reg. 244, Mondovi 252, Fall Creek 301, Oss./Fair. inc., Lk. Hol. inc.