Gardner, Guden earn WFCA awards

MEDFORD FOOTBALL

Medford senior running back Aiden Gardner earned All-Region honors for the second straight season from the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.

Gardner, the GNC’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2020, had his second consecutive outstanding season in Medford’s offensive backfield, winning the conference’s rushing title with 1,423 yards in seven league games. Overall, he finished with 1,631 yards and 17 touchdowns in 10 games. He scored 14 of those touchdowns in conference play and averaged 7.6 yards per carry and 203.3 yards per GNC game. He won the rushing title by 40 yards over Rhinelander’s Cayden Neri.

The highlight of the season was the school-record 352 rushing yards Gardner had in a 45-20 win at Lakeland on Sept. 10. He also had 254 yards in a 30-20 win at Hayward on Sept. 24 and 212 yards in a 30-12 win at Merrill on Oct. 15.

For his career, Gardner finished with 2,727 yards and 28 touchdowns. He added 14 two-point conversions over the last two seasons.

His career rushing total puts him ninth on Medford’s all-time list between Jake Bucki (2,742) and John Tracey (2,639).

Gardner is one of eight running backs selected as Large School all-stars from Region 1. The others are Cayden Neri of GNC rival Rhinelander, Leo Brostowitz of Wisconsin Rapids, Cole Evavold of River Falls, Colton Geurink of Wausau West, Cal Martine of Appleton North, Colin Obermann of Kimberly and Andrew Trandahl of New Richmond.

Mosinee led the Great Northern Conference with three players chosen for five positions on the All-Region squads. 2021 Offensive Player of the Year Trevor Garski made the list at quarterback and defensive back, 2021 Defensive Player of the Year Nolan Harris made it at linebacker and offensive line and defensive lineman Walker Beyerl also made it.

In late October, Medford’s Caleb Guden was named a winner of a Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Academic All-State Award. To earn an individual Academic All-State award, candidates must be a senior varsity letter winner with a 3.75 cumulative grade point average or higher.

Guden was an All-Great Northern Conference first-team pick this fall on defense and earned honorable mention on offense. On Nov. 10, he signed a national letter of intent to play college baseball with the Air Force Academy.

Also from the GNC, Mosinee received a Team Academic All-State Award with a team grade point average of 3.583 among 11 seniors. Individual awards went to David Bock, Jacob Hayes and Brandon Zajac of Lakeland; Trevor Garski, Nolan Harris, Alex Lerch, Eli Miland, Kyle Miller, Charlie spink and Evan Utphall of Mosinee; Aaron Converse of Antigo and Joseph Fugle of Rhinelander.