Indoor track

UWSP-Marshfield, UW-Green Bay/Manitowoc, UW-Green Bay/Sheboygan, UWOshkosh/ Fox Cities and UW-Oshkosh/ Fond du Lac during the regular season. as well as non-conference games against Gogebic Community College.

Competition took place in the second semester and started for UWSP-Wausau on Jan. 15. The team went 6-7, losing its final game to UW-Oshkosh/Fond du Lac in the conference tournament semifinals on March 11.

Raejana Wright, a 2019 Rib Lake graduate, played in eight games as a junior forward before leaving the Barton College women’s basketball program. Wright scored 29 points in 95 minutes, grabbed 21 rebounds and added six steals, four blocked shots and three assists.

Wright had an 11-point, five-rebound outing in the team’s season-opening 81-49 win over Georgia College on Nov. 12. She played 20 minutes in that game and added three steals.

Victor Rinaldi, a 2018 Medford graduate, is in his fourth year with the UWWhitewater men’s track and field program. He, again, filled a sprint role with the Warhawks during the winter indoor season.

Rinaldi set personal bests of 6.89 seconds in the 60-meter dash and 22.12 seconds in the 200-meter dash in the Midwest Elite Invitational held in Whitewater on Feb. 12. He placed second in the 200 and fourth in the 60-meter race. The Warhawks finished third in the meet with 102.25 points, just behind UW-Oshkosh (108.75) and Washington University (104.25).

In the Jan. 22 Karl Schlender Invitational hosted by the Warhawks, Rinaldi won the 200-meter dash in 22.3 and had the top preliminary time of 6.97 seconds in the 60-meter dash, though he did not run in the final. He posted 60-meter times of 6.97 seconds in the preliminaries and 6.91 seconds, good for fifth place in the final, at UW-W’s Leonard “Squig” Converse Invitational Jan. 28-29.

He took second in the 60-meter final at 6.91 seconds at North Central College’s Slick Invite on Feb. 18. At the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s Indoor Championships at UW-Platteville Feb. 25-26, Rinaldi placed 11th in the 60-meter preliminaries at 6.96 seconds, 0.07 seconds shy of reaching the final, and he was 10th in the 200-meter dash at 22.33 seconds, just 0.02 seconds away from scoring.

UW-Whitewater finished fourth in the WIAC team standings with 104 points, trailing UW-Oshkosh (172), UWLa Crosse (128.5) and UW-Eau Claire (110.33). Eau Claire went on to share the NCAA Division III national indoor title with Washington University of St. Louis.

Franny Seidel, a 2020 Medford graduate, did some distance running for the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s women’s track and field squad during the indoor season.

She started her second season with the Bulldogs by taking third in the mile run at the Jan. 14 Minnesota State Invitational with a time of 5:19.61 and lowered that to a personal-best 5:15.3 at the Jan. 28-29 Jack Johnson Classic in Minneapolis, which was good for seventh out of 19 runners. Seidel took third out of 18 runners Feb. 5 at the Ted Nelson Classic in Mankato with her time of 5:15.9.

Seidel also entered a pair of 1,000-meter runs during the indoor season. She started with a third-place time of 3:06.3 at UW-Superior’s Twin Ports Invitational Jan. 22. Teammates Josie Bond (2:58.1) and Morgan Radel (3:03.57) were ahead of her in the field of seven. At the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s championships in Mankato Feb. 25-26, Seidel lowered her time to 3:04.77 and placed ninth in the preliminaries, missing the final by one spot and 1.27 seconds. The Bulldogs placed fifth in the team standings that weekend with 41 points. Minnesota State easily won the meet with 243 points.

Erin Bergman, a 2021 Medford graduate, had a strong finish to her freshman season with the St. Cloud State women’s swim program.

At Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championships, held Feb. 9-12 at the University of Sioux Falls, Bergman placed 12th in the 200-yard backstroke final in a season-best 2:10.33, earning five points for the Huskies, who finished second in the team standings with 892 points behind Minnesota State-Mankato (1,079.5). She improved from the preliminary round, where she was 14th out of 25 contenders at 2:12.14. Bergman also took 18th in the 100-yard backstroke preliminaries in 59.9 seconds and 34th in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:19.51.

Bergman swam the backstroke leg on St. Cloud’s B team in the 200-yard medley relay. Bergman, senior Sarah Moden of Parker, Colo., freshman Demi Peterson of Bismarck, N.D. and junior Sydney Gulon of Detroit Lakes, Minn. placed sixth in 1:46.08, earning 26 points for the Huskies. Bergman had a season-best split of 27.49 seconds.

In a 182.5-90.5 win over the College of St. Benedict on Jan. 20, Bergman earned a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke at 2:22.8, a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:06.15 and was part of the third-place 200-yard medley relay team that finished in 1:53.04.

Bergman had a solid weekend early in the year at the Dec. 3-5 Rochester Invitational. She set a season-best time of 59.69 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke, which was good for 13th place in the finals and she had a 10th-place time of 2:10.89 in the 200-yard backstroke final. She set another season-best time of 2:17.17 in the preliminaries of the 200-yard individual medley. She was 24th in the finals at 2:18.57. Bergman finished 12th in the 100-yard individual medley at 1:02.88, just off her preliminary time of 1:02.59.

In a 159.5-79.5 win at UW-Eau Claire on Nov. 19, Bergman led off for the winning 200-yard medley relay team, which posted a time of 1:50.69, 0.39 seconds faster than St. Cloud’s runner-up team. She also took fourth in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:05.46 and sixth in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:28.38.

Morgan Ball, another 2021 Medford graduate, finished her freshman swim season at Minnesota-Morris with three individual season-best results at the Liberal Arts Championships hosted by Principia College in Elsah, Ill., Feb. 9-12. The Cougars scored 573.5 points to place second out of seven teams. Asbury University won the meet with 618.

Ball’s highest finish was fifth place in the 100-yard backstroke, and it came with a time of 1:05.8. She came into the meet with a season-best time of 1:09.13 but got that down to 1:05.81 in the preliminaries and cut off another hundredth in the final. Ball later took sixth in the 200-yard backstroke final at 2:25.01, cutting 0.93 seconds off her preliminary time. Her previous best had been 2:30.38.

Ball finished ninth in the consolation final of the women’s 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:28.57 that beat her preliminary time by 0.68 seconds. She came into the meet with a seasonbest of 2:38.28.

Ball also was part of three relay teams. She was on the fourth-place 400-yard medley team that finished in 4:19.74 after coming in with a seed time of 4:29.78. The team included senior Paige Haugen of Bath, S.D., senior Carolyn Curtis of Britt, Minn. and freshman Abby Doyle of Woodbury, Minn. The 200-yard medley team placed fourth in 1:56.91 after entering with a seed time of 2:04.04. That team included Ball, Haugen, Curtis and freshman Lilly Radintz of St. Michael, Minn. Ball was part of a non-scoring 400-yard freestyle relay team that finished in 4:03.59.

Ball also swam the 100-yard butterfly with a season-best time of 1:09.61 and the 100-yard individual medley with a season-best time of 1:10.99 both set at the three-day Augustana University Invitational Nov. 18-20. She was fourth in the 50-yard butterfly at 29.86 seconds at the Minnesota-Moorhead Dragon Invite Jan. 14-15.

Faith Piller, a 2020 Medford graduate, is a diver for the UW-Stevens Point women’s swim team.

Piller placed 13th in 3-meter diving with 142.85 points and 15th in 1-meter diving with a season-best 194.7 points during the Pointers’ 1,554-1,251 loss to Gustavus Adolphus in a super dual on Jan. 21-22. She was ninth at 3 meters with 106.85 points and 11th at 1 meter with 115.7 points in a 180-119 loss at UWLa Crosse on Jan. 29. In a dual with UWWhitewater on Nov. 20, Piller placed seventh out of eight entrants in 1-meter diving with 136.45 points and she was seventh out of eight entrants in 3-meter diving with 136.65 points. The Pointers won the meet 179-61.

The Pointers placed third in the WIAC Championship meet, held Feb. 16-19 in Brown Deer, by scoring 767 points. UWLa Crosse won the meet with 881 points, while UW-Eau Claire was second with 825.

In North American 3 Junior Hockey, AJ Adleman, a 2020 Medford graduate, spent time with two teams this season. After starting the year 8-0 with the Helena Bighorns, Adelman returned to Wisconsin in a trade with the Oregon Tradesmen, where he was credited with a 6-3 record in 12 regular-season games played with an overtime loss and a shootout loss.

In 639 minutes with the Tradesmen, Adleman posted a 3.28 goals against average and a .910 save percentage, recording 353 saves in 388 shots faced. His year in Oregon was highlighted by 42 saves on 44 shots in a 6-2 win over the Milwaukee Power on Jan. 8, 32 saves on 33 shots in a 4-1 win over the Texas Brahmas on Dec. 15 and 24 saves on 26 shots in his Oregon debut, a 4-2 win at the Wausau Cyclones on Dec. 17.

Oregon placed third in the Central Division during the regular season with a 26-15 record, two overtime losses and four shootout losses in 47 games. The Rochester Grizzlies won the division at 38-6-2-1, while the Peoria Mustangs were 32-10-4-1.

The Tradesmen swept Peoria two games to none in a Fraser Cup playoff series March 9-11. Adleman appeared in game one, collecting 18 saves in 22 shots faced in the first period in a 6-5 win. Oregon won game two 2-1 in overtime. This past weekend, Rochester beat Oregon 2-1 in a three-game series.

For the second straight season, Adleman played in the NHAL3 Top Prospects Tournament, which was held on Feb. 7-8 this year at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, the practice home of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Skating for Team Black he allowed four goals in two appearances and made 27 saves. He stopped 13 of 16 shots and allowed the overtime goal in a 4-3 loss to Team White. He was in goal for 28:27 of that game. In the first 29:03 of a 3-2 overtime loss to Team Red, he stopped 14 of 15 shots.

Morgan Ball of Medford swam in a variety of events, including the 100- and 200-yard backstroke this winter for the University of Minnesota-Morris.PHOTO COURTESY OF UM-M ATHLETICS