Twelve teams “toed-the-line” for the 41st annual Hatchet Cross-Country Invitational at Edgewater Country Club on Saturday. The varsity girls won the small school division competition and placed second overall while the boys placed third overall. Lakeland, state-ranked in D2, won both the boys and girls races.
For the girls team, sophomore Haley Voermans-Dean established her position early and held off all challengers as she earned medalist honors placing third overall in a time of 20:27 over the 5,000 meter course. Teammates Meagan Berg (17th-21:58), Gillian Buckwalter (25th-22:22-PR), Arianna Schreiner (29th-22:49-PR), Morgan Waye (30th-22:59-PR), and Autumn Peissig (37th-23:14-PR) had one of their tightest 2-6 splits of the season en route to the small school championship. The win moves the lady Hatchet record to W-79 L-27 on the season.
On the boys side, freshman Drew Bolder and junior Evan Ploeckelman led the way with their 7th (17:20) and 10th (17:44) place medalist efforts over the rain-soaked course. Seniors Luke Olson (25th-18:41) and Parker Johnson (29th-18:52) were next in the chute and along with junior Shawn Dirkx (30th-18:54-PR) were the final scoring Hatchets to break the 19-minute barrier for 5K. Other PR career best efforts on the varsity level were turned in from Keaton Jed (35th-19:06) and Anthony Ierulli (38th-19:15) The boys close out their invitational season with a W-85 L-24 record.
Tomahawk travels to Northland Pines High School in Eagle River for the Great Northern Conference Championship meet next weekend. The meet gets underway at 11 a.m. on Saturday.