Distance relay wins, Seifert and Sullivan earn seconds at West

MEDFORD BOYS TRACK & FIELD

Medford’s two seniors led the way individually, while the Raiders scored well in relay races as well during a third-place finish Tuesday in the 13-team Wausau West Small School Boys Indoor Invitational.

The Raiders scored 70 points to trail only Edgar (95) and the host Warriors (84.5) in Tuesday’s meet, which fortunately was held indoors as windy and, eventually cold and rainy weather continued to tighten its grip outside.

Senior Jake Seifert continued his recent climb in the shot put competition with a season-best throw of 42 feet, 0.25 inches that placed second in the preliminary round. That throw held in that position behind Colby’s Derek Jeske (42-6.5) to give Medford eight early points in the meet.

Logan Kawa added a toss of 35-4.5 to take 16th, Will Haavisto was 28th at 31-0 and Jude Stark was 40th at 26-10.

Joe Sullivan took second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.73 seconds that put him 0.7 seconds behind Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Simon Schairer and 0.26 seconds ahead of Charger Alex Centeno. Sullivan added two points by taking seventh with a season-best distance of 37-3.5 in the triple jump, another event Schairer won at 42-0.5. Raider Vincent Seidel was 10th at 35-3.25 and Josh Clark was 16th at 31-9.5. Both of those jumps were season bests.

Clark and Sullivan joined Seidel and Silas Wipf to collect Medford’s lone victory of the meet. That came in the 16-lap relay with a time of 8:50.46 that was just good enough to beat Wittenberg-Birnamwood by 1.33 seconds. Shawano was a distant third at 9:33.5.

Medford ended the meet with a second-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay. Seidel, Gatlin Piller, Clark and Gage Losiewicz were timed at 4:22.07, 0.94 seconds ahead of third-place Edgar. Wausau West won in 4:15.72.

Medford’s four-lap relay team of Jose Herrera, Itsael Medina, Evan Paul and Anakin Stokes sprinted to a fourth-place finish in 1:19.53. Amherst won that race in 1:15.24, beating Edgar (1:16.37) and Wausau West (1:19.17). The Raiders’ 800-meter sprint relay team of Medina, Paul, Cory Lindahl and Herrera put four points on the board with a fifth-place time of 2:35.26. Edgar won that race in 2:26.74.

Junior Zach Rudolph had a nice run in the 1,600-meter race, posting a thirdplace time of 5:18.8 that was beaten only by Max Voss of Amherst (5:08) and Josh Neilitz of Wausau West (5:13.07). Wipf was fourth in the 800-meter run at 2:28.62, beating Shawano’s Alec White by a second for that spot. Schairer won in 2:20.45.

Stokes sprinted to fifth place in the 200-meter dash at 26.52 seconds, 0.85 seconds behind winner Kohlbe Weisenberger of Edgar. Lindahl (28.27) was 16th and Lucas Borman (29.02) was 21st. Stokes also placed 14th in the 55-meter dash preliminaries at 7.38 seconds, while Medina (7.45), Herrera (7.59) and Borman (7.73) were 17th, 20th and 25th. Stokes was 0.22 seconds away from qualifying for the final. Piller was 21st in his first 400-meter race at 1:10.9.

In the field events, Paul had an impact for Medford by taking fifth in the high jump at a season-best 5-4 and eighth in the long jump at a season-best 19-2.5. Lindahl was 11th at a season-best 18-2.5, Herrera was 17th at 16-8 and Piller was 22nd at 15-4.5.

Losiewicz cleared 9 feet to place fifth in the pole vault, while Stark tied for 10th at 8 feet.

Medford wraps up the indoor season today, Thursday, at the Great Northern Conference championships at Northland Pines. After spring break, the Raiders will kick off the outdoor season on April 19 with their annual Early Bird Invitational