Raiders’ relays dominant in girls win at Spencer; boys place 2nd

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

Led by four convincing relay victories and more distance dominance in the open races, the Medford girls earned their second straight team win to start the track and field season Thursday at Spencer.

The Raiders piled up 174.66 points to finish with a sizable margin over runnerup Altoona (128.5) and third-place Antigo (125.16).

Medford’s boys team got two relay wins, two wins by jumper Ty Baker and Joey Sullivan’s convincing win in the 3,200-meter run while finishing second for the second straight meet. The Raiders’ 132.5 points were just shy of Chequamegon’s 140, but well ahead of third-place Eau Claire Regis’ total of 108.

Not only did the girls win all four relays, they won them by wide margins.

Alicia Kawa, Alexis Fleegel, Brooke Rudolph and Meredith Richter started the meet by taking the 3,200-meter relay in 10:52.74, well ahead of Altoona (11:15.05). Marissa Fronk, Karli Higgins, Sophie Brost and Bryn Fronk earned a commanding win in the 800-meter race with a time of 1:51.65, 7.5 seconds ahead of second-place Antigo.

Next up was the 400-meter team of Marissa Fronk, Brost, Jaylin Machon and Bryn Fronk. They sprinted to a time of 52.51 seconds that beat Antigo by 4.98 seconds. To close the meet, Higgins, Ella Daniels, Richter and Bryn Fronk ran away with the 1,600-meter relay in 4:31.78. That beat Antigo’s team by 29.2 seconds.

Richter added a win in the 1,600-meter run. She held off Altoona’s Mercedes Romo by 2.59 seconds to win in 5:45.28, while Fleegel was third in 5:59.4 and Daniels got the eighth-place point in 6:34.68. Kawa and Raider Jennifer Kahn pulled away from four other runners to take the top two spots in the 3,200-meter run at 12:17.44 and 13:16.83. Fleegel placed second in the 800-meter run at 2:39.63, 6.62 seconds behind Romo, while Daniels was seventh in 2:50.28.

The Raiders didn’t get a winner in the sprints, but they added plenty of points.

Medford got 15 points in the 200-meter dash with Marissa Fronk taking second in 27.4 seconds, Machon placing fourth in 29.15 seconds and Alyssa Brandner finishing seventh in 29.84 seconds. Hannah Fleegel wasn’t far behind, taking 10th in 31.05 seconds. Antigo’s MacKenzie Wissbroecker was just 0.11 seconds ahead of Fronk.

Brandner improved by 1.64 seconds from a week earlier and took second in the 400-meter dash at 1:08.24, while Hannah Fleegel was sixth in 1:14.44. Chequamegon’s Autumn Michalski won in 1:04.4. Brost led the Raiders in the 100-meter dash with a third-place time of 13.6 seconds, while Machon was fourth (13.63) and Lindsey Klapatauskas got the eighth-place point (14.06).

Rudolph took third in the 300-meter low hurdles at 56.07 seconds and Brenley Beran got the eighth-place point in her first 100-meter high hurdles race with a time of 21.33 seconds.

The Raiders collected 15.66 points in the pole vault with Rudolph and Machon both clearing 7 feet, 6 inches to place second and third behind Spencer’s Leah Zastrow (9 feet). Daniels was part of a six-way tie for fifth at 6 feet. Higgins and Klapatauskas took third and fourth in the shot put with throws of 24-11 and 24-6. Beran took a big leap forward in the triple jump over the previous meet with a third-place distance of 32-9, while Brost was fifth at 29-1.5 and Hannah Fleegel was eighth at 28-3.

Higgins went 14-1 to take fourth in the long jump and Hannah Fleegel was seventh at 12-10. Lacey Brandner was Medford’s lone entrant in the discus and tied for 18th place.

Boys results

In the boys meet, Medford’s relay wins came in the 3,200- and 800-meter races. The 3,200-meter team of Carson Church, Owen Wipf, Tristan Price and Sullivan comfortably beat Altoona by 23.87 seconds with its time of 9:06.14. Colton Surek, Tyler Kapitz, Church and Cole Dassow posted a time of 1:41.14 in the 800, beating Chequamegon by 2.7 seconds.

Cory Lindahl, Wipf, Gabe Felix and Tristan Price came in second in an exciting finish to the 1,600-meter relay. Eau Claire Regis hit the finish line first in 3:56.17, just 0.86 seconds ahead of the Raiders, while Chequamegon was just 1.47 seconds behind. Surek, Kapitz, Lindahl and Dassow took third in the 400-meter relay at 48.94 seconds. They trailed Spencer (47.05) and Regis (47.12).

Baker made his 2021 debut a good one. His best effort of the day in the triple jump carried him 40-5.5 and gave him an easy win over Greg Sokup of Regis (367). Sullivan added six third-place points at a personal-best 36-4 and Church was eighth at 32-11. In the long jump, Baker’s winning jump was 19-0.5, 2 inches ahead of Chequamegon’s Zach Poetzl. Lindahl was fourth (17-5) and Kapitz was sixth (17-0.5).

Jake Seifert had a solid day in the throws. It included a second-place throw of 38-7 in the shot put and a sixth-place effort of 106-8 in the discus. Nekoosa’s Logan Cleary easily won both at 52-2 and 142-3. Logan Kawa tied Spencer’s Alexander Baumgarten for fourth by clearing 8-6 in the pole vault. Jude Stark hit 6 feet.

On the track, Sullivan won the 3,200-meter race in 10:18.54, beating Altoona’s Ayden Darnell by 11.94 seconds. Wipf was a solid second in the 400-meter dash at 56.63 seconds, just 0.61 seconds behind Chequamegon’s Isaiah Dietz. Felix was 10th. Kapitz sprinted to second in the 200-meter dash at 23.86 seconds, 0.66 seconds behind Gus Theisen of Regis.

Vincent Seidel opened his year with a solid third-place time of 5:18.25 in the 1,600-meter run, just 4.38 seconds behind winner Josh Mumm of Altoona. Church was fourth in his first 800-meter run of the spring at 2:22.75.

Price took fourth in his first 300-meter intermediate hurdle race at 50.03 seconds. Lindahl was fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles at 21.24 seconds and Lucas Borman was seventh at 25.24 seconds.

Medford is at the Wausau West Invitational Friday and then goes to a relay meet in Marathon on Monday.