Bluejays dominate leaderboard at Hodag Invite

The Three Lakes-Phelps cross country team had another successful showing this year in the season opener at the Rhinelander Invitational Thursday morning at Rhinelander High School. Senior Nolan Watlz won top overall in the small school division and took second overall in the field, while the girls’ team swept the top four spots in small school competition and had multiple runners finish in the top 15 overall.

Head Coach Laurie Levandoski enjoyed watching the strong performances that opened the 2026 season.
“We were hoping to repeat last year’s results - Nolan with the win in the small schools division and a first-place finish for the girls. We accomplished both,” stated Levandoski. “Bekah Koch coming away with a win for the girls (small school) was a great way to kick off the season. We were pleased with today’s results.”

The girls’ runners hit the Hodag course on Thursday morning, with Lakeland’s Emerson Rubo taking a commanding lead early and never looking back. The T-Bird sophomore finished over a minute ahead of her competitors. For Three Lakes, Koch and junior Erica Stauffer led the charge. They finished first and second in small school competition (13 runners) and eighth and 11th overall out of 59 runners. Koch clocked her first 2026 competition time at 22:24.5 and Stauffer did so at 23:49.1. Junior Rylee Glembin and sophomore Grace Mandli rounded out the top four competitors of the small school division in third and fourth. The two Bluejays finished 13th and 22nd overall, respectively. Glembin paced herself to the end with a finishing time of 24:10.3, nine seconds off 12th place and roughly a 25-second buffer from anyone behind her. Mandli, on the other hand, had some competition heading towards the finish line, beating out a Merrill runner (25:42.7) with her time of 25:42.3. The Bluejays girls team also had strong finishes from Abby Raddatz (43rd), Mikayla Corbett (46th) and Emma Eppler. Raddatz and Corbett were separated by about 12 seconds, with times of 29:06.4 and 29:18.5. Eppler finished with a time of 34:32.3.

For the boys, Coach Levandoski said Waltz has focused on this upcoming season since his state appearance in La Crosse for track. Waltz was out in front in second place right from the start. It was D.C. Everest’s Will VanSlyke’s race to lose, as the junior runner from central Wisconsin created a comfortable gap between his competitors. Waltz raced for second at that point and fought off Lakeland’s Charlie Ernst to claim the runner-up spot in a field of 124, with a time of 17:09.9 and a 5:32 pace. Waltz was the only small-school competitor to finish inside the top 10. Three Lakes freshman Jaymz Comella made his varsity debut with a time of 28:48.4.

Levandoski mentioned that there were slight alterations to the course layout, so comparing times from last year is tough. Overall, it was a good meet to shake the nerves off and get the season rolling.

“The course was slightly different from last year, so we can’t exactly compare times year-to-year. It’s always nice to shake off some of the nerves with the first race of the season,” she noted.

The Bluejays now look ahead to a race at nine-mile park in Wausau this Thursday, Sept. 3, starting at 4:30 p.m.

“I think our kids enjoy racing at Nine Mile, so we can hopefully look forward to some good performances for the entire team,” Levandoski explained.