The Lakeland girls’ basketball team fell behind early and couldn’t recover, dropping its first game to Northland Pines in almost 12 years on Tuesday. The Eagles defeated the Thunderbirds 55-46 in Minocqua. It was Northland Pines’ first win over Lakeland since Feb. 27, 2014.
The Lakeland boys’ basketball team finally played in a close game. It didn’t result in a victory on Tuesday. The Thunderbirds fell 68-60 to Northland Pines in a Great Northern Conference game in Eagle River.
For the first time in three-plus years, the Lakeland Nordic ski team held its annual invite on Sunday. “We’ve got great snow this year, and it was really great to be able to get back to a home race that we didn’t have to worry about snow conditions,” coach Erich Kern said. “So everybody was excited to be skiing locally again, and people were excited to come and race again at Minocqua Winter Park.”
Getting on the mat for the first time in several weeks, the Lakeland boys’ wrestling team dropped two duals in Laona. The Thunderbirds fell 39-30 to Wabeno/Laona/Three Lakes during a quad in Laona on Tuesday. Crandon beat Lakeland 50-18.
Matches have been hard to come by as of late for the Lakeland Union High School girls’ wrestling team. Not traveling to Stevens Point, they made a last-second decision to go to Laona with the boys. The Thunderbirds wrestled against Wabeno/Laona/Three Lakes on Tuesday.
A clutch shot by one of the top teams in the Wisconsin Valley Conference dashed any hopes of a Lakeland girls’ basketball upset last week. The Thunderbirds fell 46-42 to non-conference Wisconsin Rapids on Tuesday, Dec. 30 in Wisconsin Rapids. Leondra Denson (13 points) hit the go-ahead and game-winning 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left in the game.
The Northland Pines girls’ hockey co-op split a pair of games over the weekend, the second of which took place in Minocqua. First, the Eagles fell 3-1 to Badger Lightning on Friday in Eagle River. Then, Northland Pines defeated Viroqua 4-1 on Saturday at the Lakeland Hawks Ice Arena.
Christmas Day may be in the past, but the fun doesn’t have to stop. There is plenty of fun winter activities to take in over the holiday break. It’s still Christmas break for kids in school and I know a lot of parents like to take time off work during this time. We recently got blasted with a winter storm, providing fresh snow on the ground.