2020-21 ENDS WITH THE STATE MEET IN LA CROSSE

Sullivan wins two sectional races; Raiders qualify in 6 events

The Medford Raiders strength in distance events was on display at Thursday’s WIAA Division 2 Osceola track and field sectional with four state-qualifying performances in those events.

Junior Joe Sullivan won sectional championships in the boys 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs to earn his first individual state berths after qualifying as part of a 3,200-meter relay team as a freshman. Senior Alicia Kawa heads to state indi- vidually for the second time thanks to a fourth-place finish in the girls 3,200-meter run.

Alexis Fleegel, Jennifer Kahn, Meredith Richter and Kawa put Medford in the state 3,200-meter relay for the fourth straight state meet with a second-place finish at Thursday’s sectional.

The Raiders will have two more entries in the WIAA Division 2 state championships, which will take place Friday at UW-La Crosse with the first events kicking off at 11 a.m.

The girls 400-meter relay team of Ma- rissa Fronk, Sophie Brost, Jaylin Machon and Bryn Fronk took fourth in its race to advance and senior Ty Baker earned his first state appearance with a fourth-place finish in the boys triple jump.

Boys meet

Sullivan put together his strongest double-race day of the spring, which was a necessity against the always-tough competition the sectional meet features.

First in the 1,600, he set a personalbest time of 4:28.11 and wound up comfortably punching his state ticket.

The runners gaining the four state berths separated themselves from the pack at the end of the race. Neillsville’s Taytor Lowry finished 1.9 seconds behind Sullivan, Tomahawk’s Noah Buckwalter was third in 4:30.77 and Jakob Eggen of St. Croix Central was fourth at 4:32.96, 3.27 seconds ahead of fifth-place finisher Drew Bolder of Tomahawk.

Later in the meet, Sullivan fell just short of breaking the 10-minute barrier for the first time in the 3,200-meter run, but he won convincingly in 10:00.79, 3.26 seconds ahead of Osceola’s Quinn Mc-Donald. Sullivan was just 0.35 seconds behind his personal-best time set June 8 in the Great Northern Conference meet. Eggen (10:07.81) and Marcus Peterson of Barron (10:11.07) also will head to state.

Raider senior Jack Tlusty finished 16th in the race at 11:52.1.

The races for top-six medal spots at state should be ultra competitive. Sullivan is ranked sixth in the state 1,600-meter field, based on sectional times. Shane Griepentrog of Valders is the top seed at 4:16.28. Sullivan is ranked ninth in the 3,200-meter field, which Griepentrog also holds the top ranking in at 9:35.81.

Baker will close his Medford athletic career at state thanks to a jump of 41 feet, 6.5 inches in the event finals. After the preliminary round, Baker was in fourth place with a jump of 40-11.25.

Barron’s Connor Linsmeyer leapfrogged all of the leaders in the finals, going from sixth place to the championship with a jump of 42-3.5 on his last jump. That meant Baker had to jump over someone to stay in fourth and he did that on his fifth jump of the day and second of the finals, surpassing the preliminary jump of 41-5 posted by GNC rival Jack Gjovick of Northland Pines.

After his first jump of 38-5.25, all of Baker’s jumps exceeded 40 feet. He fell 7 inches off his personal-best set in the June 14 regional. He is seeded 13th out of 17 state jumpers. The top seed is junior Camden Combs of Beloit Turner, who jumped 45-6.5 at his sectional meet.

Medford had four more entries in Thursday’s boys meet.

Senior Owen Wipf had the highest finish of those entries, taking seventh in the 400-meter dash with a personalbest time of 54.06 seconds. Luke Vance of Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau won it at a brisk 49.84 seconds, while Cooper Nichols of Stanley-Boyd got the last state spot at 51.93 seconds.

Senior Tyler Kapitz qualified for the 200-meter dash final with a ninth-place time of 24.21 seconds in the preliminaries. He got the last spot over Linsmeyer by 0.09 seconds. He stayed in ninth place with a time of 24.47 seconds in the final, which was won by Vance in 22.51 seconds, followed by Cody Lustig of Ashland (23.1), Wes Ebel of Antigo (23.65) and Korbin Verdon of Elk Mound (23.82).

The 800-meter relay team of Cole Dassow, Cory Lindahl, Carson Church and Kapitz placed ninth in 1:36.71, which was the team’s best of the spring by 1.13 seconds. They missed getting an eighthplace team point by 0.19 seconds. Ellsworth won the race in 1:31.76, followed by Lakeland (1:34.26), Northwestern (1:35) and Prescott (1:35.34).

Junior Jake Seifert finished 15th in the discus in his first sectional appearance. His best throw went 105-8, good enough to beat Ryan Gunderson of St. Croix Central (101-9).

Medford scored 27 points to finish ninth out of 31 scoring teams. Osceola won the meet with 63 points, beating La Crosse Logan (56), Ashland (50) and Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (50).

Girls meet

It didn’t take long for the Medford girls to secure a state berth thanks to a superb effort from the 3,200-meter relay team in the meet’s first race.

Fleegel, Kahn, Richter and Kawa finished in 9:59.12, which was Medford’s best time of 2021 and it wasn’t even close. The best a Raider team had done before that this spring was 10:23.29 in the regional.

The Raiders didn’t quite have enough to beat Osceola for the sectional championship, but they were well ahead of GNC state qualifiers Lakeland (10:14.72) and Tomahawk (10:19.1). For Fleegel and Kahn, juniors and two-time state cross country participants, this is their first state track appearance as it is for Richter, a freshman. Kawa was on the 2019 state relay team that got the sixth-place spot on the awards podium. Sophomore Brooke Rudolph and freshman Ella Daniels are alterates.

Medford will be in the second or “fast” heat of Friday’s state race as the sixth seed. Shorewood had the state’s fastest sectional time at 10:14.72.

The four state qualifiers in the 3,200-meter run separated themselves from the pack and all impressively hit the finish line in less than 12 minutes. Kawa’s fourth-place time was a personalbest by almost 12 seconds at 11:51.94. She was just 0.03 seconds behind Mosinee’s Olivia Donohue. Mya Kizer of St. Croix Central won in 11:30.55 and Hayward’s Eliana Malnourie was second in 11:50.96. Kawa, who placed 10th as a freshman in 2018, is seeded seventh out of 16 state runners. Kizer is the second seed behind Mikaela Helling of Two Rivers (11:23.82).

The 400-meter team added a sprint element to Medford’s state crew, beating Rice Lake and Bloomer by 0.16 seconds to get the fourth and final state spot at 51.82 seconds. Prescott (49.65), La Crosse Logan (50.56) and St. Croix Falls (51.76) were the top three finishers.

It’s the first state track appearance for all four sprinters. Marissa Fronk is the only senior in the bunch. Brost is a junior, Bryn Fronk is a sophomore and Machon is a freshman. The alternates are freshmen Brenley Beran and Lindsey Klapatauskas. Medford is the 15th seed out of 16 teams.

Marissa Fronk, Brost, senior Karli Higgins and Bryn Fronk fell one spot short of qualifying in the 800-meter relay, taking fifth in 1:49.73, 1.16 seconds behind fourth-place Hayward. The time was just off the team’s best of the spring. Prescott won the race in 1:44.11, followed by La Crosse Logan (1:46.19) and Mosinee (1:46.71).

Richter had another near-miss, taking fifth in the 400-meter dash at a personalbest 1:01.87. She was 1.28 seconds behind fourth-place finisher Grace Kern of Lakeland. Freshman Eliana Sheplee of Rice Lake won it in a speedy 56.12 seconds.

Bryn Fronk scored a point by taking eighth in the 200-meter dash final at 27.37 seconds. She was even faster in the preliminaries with an eighth-place time of 27.08 seconds. Kahn and Fleegel were eighth and 10th in the 800-meter run at 2:33.44 and 2:33.99 respectively, about 10 seconds shy of contending for state.

Machon set another personal-best time in the 100-meter high hurdles with her eighth-place time of 17.96 seconds, which was 0.07 seconds faster than her preliminary time, which was also eighth best. Machon was 1.82 seconds behind fourth-place hurdler Trinity Roberts of Rice Lake.

Machon cleared 8 feet to place 15th in the pole vault, Brost went 30-4.25 to take 15th in the triple jump and Rudolph placed 14th in the 300-meter low hurdles at 53.95 seconds, beating West Salem’s Morgan Kammel by 0.8 seconds.

Medford’s 29 points was good for 11th place in the team standings out of 30 scoring teams. Osceola completed a sweep of the team championships with 65 points, three more than Rice Lake. GNC champion Mosinee was third with 48 points.

Ty Baker

Alexis Fleegel

Jennifer Kahn

Meredith Richter

Alicia Kawa

Marissa Fronk

Sophie Brost

Jaylin Machon

Bryn Fronk

The Strikes R Us bowling team won a roll-off with Team Sports Page to win the Blue Monday Ladies League championship. Team members are Barbara Johnson, Chris Hinde and Estelle Anderson. Jean Egle is not pictured.SUBMITTED PHOTO