Teeing off: Medford Invite Friday restarts spring sports
MEDFORD GOLF PREVIEW
Medford Invite Friday restarts spring sports
A defining sign of spring is the sound of woods and irons connecting with golf balls, so it’s fitting that the return of WIAA spring sports in Taylor County after a nearly twoyear absence will come Friday at the Black River Golf Course.
The Medford Raiders will tee off their 2021 season by hosting an 18-hole invitational that is expected to feature 12 teams from 10 different schools and starts at noon. Medford and Lakeland will have two teams in the tournament, which begins a busy spring for the Raiders, who have the full allotment of 15 meets on their regular-season schedule.
The full slate offers some payback for the golfers after their entire 2020 season was canceled.
Head coach Dave Vaara and assistant Matt Haase will oversee a roster that is light on varsity experience –– most teams will be after the year off –– but has potential to improve as the season progresses. Vaara said he likes the team’s chances to have a solid season Monday during the team’s first official practice. Two weeks ago, the Raiders got in three nine-hole rounds and were on the course practicing in shirt sleeves and shorts during their extended contact days. On Monday, they held an 18hole putting contest in Haase’s classroom and the library at Medford Area Middle School as snow flurries and wind chills shut down the golf course. Vaara’s optimism is aided by a couple of solid youthful additions at the top of the projected varsity lineup and what he expects will be good competition among some veterans for the final varsity Junior Caleb Heckel is the lone returning letter winner from Medford’s 2019 team that finished fifth in the Great Northern Conference and seventh in the WIAA Division 2 regional meet the Raiders hosted at Black River Golf Course. Heckel was the number-four golfer on that team with a nine-hole average of Sophomore Lucas Liske and freshman Connor Lingen scored well enough in the contact-day rounds to earn chances to start the season with the varsity this week. The roster includes four seniors vying for varsity spots. Isaac Dittrich and Sam Liske saw a little bit of varsity time in 2019, while Jake Cipar was one of the JV leaders during that season. Colton Gowey is the fourth senior and Vaara said he is making a push to get into the team’s top five spots. Gowey had previously played baseball but is on the mend after a knee injury ended his hockey season. From there, the roster is quite young. Sophomores include Colton’s younger brother Connor Gowey, Nick Cipar, Brett Lundy, Ryan Neumann, Slater Piller and Landen Holub. Riley Viergutz and Isaac Schaefer were the top scorers in the contact-day rounds out of the freshman class, which includes Noah Machon, Aidan Ball and Owen Stockwell. If the weather holds, Vaara and Haase will get ample early chances to see how their young squads fare in competition. The varsity is scheduled to compete in four meets in a week’s time starting with Friday’s home invite, where the Raiders will enter two five-man teams. The Raiders head to the Ashland Invitational Monday at Chequamegon Bay Golf Club where Vaara is hopeful of a high team finish as the Raiders join a mix of mid-size and smallschool programs for a 1:30 p.m. start. The following day, both the varsity and JV teams will be challenged at the Marshfield Invitational at RiverEdge Golf Course. That meet will feature Antigo from the Great Northern Conference and Division 1 Wisconsin Valley Conference schools Marshfield, D.C. Everest, Merrill and Wausau West.
The Great Northern Conference title chase will start April 29 with the first of seven league meets. 2018 and 2019 champion Lakeland hosts next Thursday’s meet at the Minocqua Country Club, a change from the usual site of Timber Ridge.
After Tuesday’s Marshfield meet, the JVs will open their conference slate with nine-hole meets at Tomahawk’s Edgewater Golf Course April 30 and at Black River on Monday, May 3.
Medford won’t get its turn to host a varsity GNC meet until Monday, May 17. That will be meet number six on the conference circuit. The varsity is scheduled to make its usual trip to Cadott’s Whispering Pines Golf Course for the Stanley-Boyd Invitational on May 15. Invitationals at Rhinelander on May 10 and Northwestern on May 20 are new to the schedule. The Northwestern trip will be an important one as it will give the Raiders a look at Hiddens Green North in Solon Springs, the site of this year’s WIAA Division 2 regional on June 1. Top teams and golfers at that meet will advance to the June 8 sectional hosted by Black River Falls at Skyline Golf Course.
Lakeland, the Division 2 state runnerup in 2019, lost a lot of talent following the 2020 season that wasn’t, but Vaara said the T-Birds will still have enough good players to make them a GNC favorite. Junior Kaeden Nomm finished second in the GNC’s individual standings as a freshman. Mosinee, Antigo and Rhinelander finished second, third and fourth in the 2019 team standings. Mosinee’s Toren Holtz finished 10th individually as a freshman, Rhinelander’s Kole Gechas tied for 12th as a freshman and Antigo’s Will Kubeny was 15th as a sophomore.
