Hodag Highlights: Rhinelander High School track, soccer, tennis

Aila Bergman went over a hurdle ahead of Avery West and won the 100 meter hurdles. Bob Mainhardt photo

Photos by Bob Mainhardt

A hybrid track meet was held at Mike Webster stadium Thursday night. There were nine teams participating in the track meet with both Antigo and Lakeland competing from the conference. Both the Hodag boys and girls won; the boys won by 23.5 points over Lakeland and the girls won by 2.5 points over Lakeland. 

SOCCER

The Hodag girls soccer team played their third non-conference game last Tuesday against Waupaca before opening conference play on Thursday at Mosinee. 

Again, the Hodags played a close game into the second half as the girls did not score until the 75th minute on a Vivian Lamers goal to take a 1-0 lead. Waupaca did not score in the game and were outshot 26-8 with only three shots on goal.

Sophia Mijevich scored the final goal with just three seconds left on the clock to make the final score 2-0. Senior keeper Mya Krouze made three saves in the contest. 

Thursday the Hodags traveled to Mosinee for their first conference game of the season and won 9-1 in a game shortened via the mercy rule to make the Hodags 4-0 in the young season.

TENNIS

Due to the weather the boys tennis meet against new conference opponent Ashland was played in the Hodag Dome on Tuesday. 

The Hodags have been conference champions for the last nine years and demonstrated to Ashland what they are made of even with a shuffled lineup as Joey Belanger, No. 1 doubles player, was at a college visit and doubles player Aiden Ostermann was at an FBLA event.

It did not matter as the only loss came at number one doubles as Dalton Fritz, with Dawson Pontell as a partner, were not able to overcome the shuffle; they did take the match to three sets. The Ashland duo made it to the second round of the state tournament last year and in all probability, the Hodags with Belanger will face Ashland in the conference tournament.

The Hodags were in Wausau Friday and Saturday for a tournament. Friday the team lost to DC Everest 3-4. On Saturday the team began with a 6-1 win over Wausau West, and then avenged the loss against East by flipping the score, winning 4-3 to go 4-1 at the Wausau Invite.