Pines XC places six in the top 35 in season opener

The Northland Pines varsity cross country team ran at the Hodag Invitational last Thursday, and six runners from the boys and girls teams placed inside the top 35 of their respective divisions.

Facing some tough competition in the large school division, the boys placed fifth overall out of nine schools across all divisions. The girls did not score with only four runners at the first meet.

“The runners have put a lot of effort into the first week and a half. I’m very impressed with the team’s positive attitude they came out with for the meet. They were excited to run their first meet of the season,” said Pines Head Coach Patrick Gauthier.

Senior Ethan Miller led the Eagles’ boys team. He was one of three boys to finish within the top 35. Miller opened his senior campaign with a 13th-place finish at 18:47. He was 11th overall in large school-only competition. Freshman Ryleigh Thompson started her varsity career with a top finish for the girls in seventh overall. The top seven finishers in the girls’ race all come from the large-school division.
Each team also had two other top-35 finishers.

Sophomore Jarrett Grassl wasn’t far behind Miller, finishing less than a minute behind his teammate and taking 23rd overall out of nearly 125 runners. He was 20th in the large-school division. Grassl took over two minutes off his course time from his freshman year.

Fellow sophomore Nelson Kirschbaum battled for a top-30 spot and finished 31st overall with a time of 20:05.5, placing 25th against large-school runners.

Sophomores Collin Miller and Ryan McGrath, junior Logan Manriquez and senior Griffin Beyer all finished nicely for the Eagles. Miller and McGrath posted times of 21:18.6 and 22:35.7 to place 55th and 72nd, respectively. McGrath posted a minute and a half faster than his freshman year as well.

Manriquez took 60th with his race time of 21:47. Beyer rounded out in 75th to have all runners finish inside the top 75% of the field. Freshman Austin Fuller finished at 24:48 in his first varsity meet for the Eagles.
For the girls, juniors Emily Ritter and Anna Chicka followed Thompson’s performance by finishing 26th and 35th, respectively. Ritter clocked a time of 25:58.2 to beat a fellow Great Northern Conference competitor from Rhinelander who had a time of 26:00.2.

Chicka had a pace just north of nine minutes and finished her first 2026 race with a time of 28:15. The girls’ team brought four runners to this meet, with freshman Courtney Archuleta clocking a time of 31:47.4.

The team will now focus on a meet at Nine Mile Park in Wausau this coming Thursday, Sept. 3, starting at 4:30 p.m.