Varsity boys take first at Ashwabay ski meet

It was a big day for the Rhinelander/Northland Pines varsity boys ski team, as they picked up their first conference win of the season Jan. 19, after finishing second and third in the first two meets. 

The boys team dominated the meet with 72 meet points, ahead of Wausau/D.C. Everest in second, who had 109 points. Ashwabay finished third as a team with 155 points, while Rice Lake/Cameron and EC Regis/Memorial followed in fourth and fifth with 241 and 258 points, respectively. 

Rhinelander senior Ben Olson swept all three ski runs in the boys competition, placing first with three individual points. His slalom time was 36.75, which was nearly a second faster than second-place finisher Alber Hayek of Wausau West. 

Olson posted a top time of 25.57 in the giant slalom and 31.77 in the super giant slalom race. His overall time of 94.09 was over two seconds faster than Hayek's time. Rhinelander’s Wyler Koput and Northland Pines’ Eli Repenshek took third and fourth place individually. It was Repenshek’s best individual finish so far this season. Koput ranked sixth in the slalom race with a 37.91 time, third in the giant slalom with a time of 25.93 and finished behind Olson in the super giant with a time of 32.48. Repenshek took fourth place across the board in all three races. The Pines junior had a season-best time of 25.97 in the giant slalom. Rhinelander senior Holden Schmitz took a top-20 spot of 16th in the field of 30 racers as the fourth-scoring racer for the team. His best run came in the super giant, where he finished seventh, and he posted a time of 33.55. 

Sophomore Henry Schmitz and juniors Charlie Johnson and Ryley Hull finished 21st, 26th and 28th to round out the team. 

The boys team remains in second place in the Northern Conference with six points behind Wausau/D.C. Everest, who has four points after two first-place finishes and a second. 

On the girls side, Rhinelander/Pines finished the third meet in third place. They had 142 points in the slalom race, 133 in the giant slalom and 124 in the super giant. Two athletes on the team did not compete, so the point total was inflated more than usual. Rhinelander’s Lucy Eddy and Aila Bergman finished back-to-back in ninth and 10th. Eddy had a season-best time of 29.26 in the giant slalom, as she finished that event in ninth. She also ranked eighth in the super giant slalom with a time of 37.99. She finished with a combined point total of 29. Bergman finished sixth in the super giant, which was her best run of the day placement-wise. She ran the race in 37.29 seconds.

Her individual points total came out to 31 for the three races. Karlie Yunkers was the only other athlete to take the hill for the girls team. She finished 13th overall and had a top-10 time of 38.85 in the super giant slalom. She also had a season-best of 30.77 in the giant slalom race. 

The team will look ahead to the fourth leg of the conference season at Ski Brule on Saturday, Jan. 24.