3 RAIDERS, 2 PIRATES HEADED TO STATE

Sullivan wins twice; Richter, Machon also advance

In his career as a high-school distance runner, Medford senior Joe Sullivan has often thrived in situations where races get competitive.

On Thursday, he came through in two of those situations.

Sullivan will complete his outstanding four-year run as a Raider athlete this weekend at the WIAA Division 2 state track and field championships hosted by UW-La Crosse after winning sectional championships in both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in Rice Lake with times that ranked right up with his best ever on the track.

He’ll be joined at state by sophomores Meredith Richter and Jaylin Machon from Medford girls team. Richter auto- matically qualified with fourth-place finishes in the 400-meter dash and 800-meter run. Machon was added to state field over the weekend. She finished fifth in Thursday’s sectional pole vault competition, tying the school record at 10 feet. That height was among the top eight posted statewide in Division 2 Thursday, giving her a state spot as an extra qualifier. It’s the first individual state appearances for both girls, who ran on relay teams last June at La Crosse.

In both of his races Thursday, Sullivan needed those fast times because the competition for the top-four state qualifying spots was fierce.

First, Sullivan finished the 1,600-meter run in 4:24.49, his best time of the season by more than five seconds and the second-best time of his career behind the 4:24.27 he posted while finishing fifth at state last June. As one would expect, Thursday’s race was run at a much faster pace than the regional race was three days earlier. Sullivan won that in 4:41.52. He won the sectional race by 1.34 seconds over Great Northern Conference and regional rival Owen Clark of Lakeland. Quinn McDonald of Osceola (4:26.02) and Eli Boppart of Mauston (4:26.42) also qualified, while Sam Gremban of Northland Pines was fifth and wound up being added to the state field as an extra qualifi er with his time of 4:27.71. The 3,200-meter race at the end of the meet was even more impressive. Coming off what was a season-best time of 10:05.12 at the regional meet in Tomahawk, Sullivan was pushed to a time of 9:46.61 that won the race by 1.13 seconds over La Crosse Aquinas senior Jonathan Skemp and 1.24 seconds over Clark. Boppart, who was a tough cross country rival for Sullivan during the cross country season in the fall, was the fourth qualifi er in 9:48. Sullivan’s time smashed his previous best of 9:56.72 set at last year’s state meet, where he finished ninth.

Based on sectional times, Sullivan is seeded third out of 17 runners in the 1,600-meter state field behind Shane Griepentrog of Valders (4:15.23) and Logan Measner of Kettle Moraine Lutheran (4:24.19). Drew Stephens from the University School of Milwaukee is seeded fourth (4:25.56), just ahead of Clark.

Sullivan is seeded seventh in the 3,200-meter run. Griepentrog is also the top seed in that race at 9:15.39, well ahead of Measner (9:33.68), Drew Stephens (9:40.05) and Thomas Stephens (9:43.23), also from the University School of Milwaukee.

Richter has been steadily lowering her times in both of her main races for the Raiders, and it paid off Thursday.

First in the 400-meter dash, Richter cut another 0.27 seconds off her regional time to finish in 1:00.73. That comfortably qualified her for state, 1.41 seconds ahead of Mosinee freshman Britt Fitzgerald. Rice Lake sophomore Eliana Sheplee won the race in 57.33 seconds, while Wittenberg- Birnamwood’s Reese Rogowski (58.25) and Lakeland’s Grace Kern (59.55) also qualified.

Later in the 800-meter run, Richter cut 2.79 seconds off her regional time and finished in 2:25. That gave her a 1.62-second margin over fifth-place finisher Ashley Janisch of La Crosse Logan. Northland Pines star Nora Gremban won easily at 2:16.47, while Rachel Ulrich of Osceola (2:20.24) and Bekah Luckwaldt of Baldwin- Woodville (2:22.41) are headed to state as well.

Richter is seeded 12th out of 16 girls in the 800-meter state field. Shorewood’s Isabella Lozier (2:14.5) and Gremban are the favorites based on sectional times. Richter is the 14th seed in the 400 and will run in lane two in heat one of Friday’s preliminaries. Sheplee, Grace Hambel of Freedom (58.19) and Rogowski are the top three seeds.

Machon qualified after finally hitting the vault she’s been seeking for some time. Stuck at 9 feet, 6 inches for the past three meets, she hit the 10-foot mark, tying Medford’s school record held since 2015 by Margaret Hamann. Machon was one of three vaulters to top out at 10 feet and finish behind Casidi Pehler of Arcadia (10-6), Kelly Fern of Amery (10-3) and Macy Tauscher of West Salem (10-3). Once ties were settled, based on misses, Osceola’s Gabbie Neumann was awarded fourth place ahead of Machon and Gabbi Pardoe of Black River Falls.

But Machon and Pardoe both were added to the state field over the weekend and are among the nine of the 18 state vaulters who hit at least 10 feet in sectional competition.

State competition for Divisions 2 and 3 will start at 3 p.m. on Friday. Sullivan will run in the 1,600-meter dash and Richter will have her 400-meter preliminary run on Friday. Sullivan and Richter will run their longer races on Saturday. If Richter makes the 400-meter final, that will be on Saturday and the Division 2 girls pole vault competition is slated for Saturday afternoon. Some field events Saturday start at 9:30 a.m. while the running competition starts at 10 a.m.

Rest of the Raiders

With Sullivan scoring 20 of the team’s 21 points, Medford finished 16th out of 30 scoring teams in Thursday’s boys competition at Rice Lake. La Crosse Logan won the team championship with 79.5 points, well ahead of Osceola (63), Lakeland (52.5), Prescott (46) and Aquinas (46).

In relay races, Medford’s team of Zach Rudolph, Vincent Seidel, Josh Clark and Silas Wipf took 10th in the 3,200-meter race at 8:37.64, almost 15 seconds shy of state-qualifying time. La Crosse Logan (8:17.65), Stratford (8:19.49), Antigo (8:21.15) and Elk Mound (8:22.8) got the state spots. The 800-meter team of Itsael Medina, Cory Lindahl, Jose Herrera and Anakin Stokes placed 11th in 1:36.46, a season-best time that was 1.63 seconds faster than the regional time. Ellsworth (1:30.38), Arcadia (1:32.23), Prescott (1:32.25) and West Salem (1:32.59) got the state spots.

Freshman Gage Losiewicz tied the personal-best height of 11-6 he had set three nights earlier at the regional and placed eighth in the pole vault competition to score Medford’s last team point. Northwestern’s Camren Benesch won it at 14-3. A vault of 12-6 was needed to be in the running for state.

Senior Jake Seifert closed his prep career with an 11th-place finish in the discus with a throw of 120-5 and a 15thplace toss of 41-4 in the shot put competition. Blake Williams of Black River Falls won the discus at 163 feet. Northwestern’s Greg Ohman got fourth at 143-3. La Crosse Logan had the top two shot putters in Martell Owens (51-4) and Zay Boyd (50 feet). Rice Lake had the next two in Nathan Carrol (49 feet) and Parker Owens (48-6).

Freshman Evan Paul placed 14th in the high jump at 5-6 in his first sectional appearance. Prescott’s Aiden Russell won at 6-2 with 6 feet being needed to advance. Herrera was 16th in the long jump at 17-2 and Stokes was 16th in the 200-meter dash preliminaries at 24.75 seconds.

The Medford girls scored 14 points to place 20th out of 32 scoring teams. La Crosse Logan completed a sweep of the team titles by scoring 65.5 points, well ahead of Osceola (49), Amery (48), Rice Lake (44) and Mosinee (38).

The 1,600-meter relay team of Alyssa Brandner, Ella Daniels, Brooke Rudolph and Richter placed 12th out of 16 teams in a time of 4:30.9 that was 0.99 seconds faster than their regional time. Hayward (4:05.42), Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (4:10.3), Osceola (4:11.57) and St. Croix Falls (4:13.12) were the state qualifiers.

The 800-meter team of Brenley Beran, Machon, Sophie Brost and Marlee Perrin was 12th out of 16 teams in 1:53.37 seconds. Hayward (1:46.03), La Crosse Logan (1:46.25), Mosinee (1:47.47) and St. Croix Falls (1:48.05) were the qualifiers. Medford’s 3,200-meter team of Daniels, Naomi Fleegel, Ella Dassow and Brooke Rudolph was 14th in 11:12.7. Lakeland (10:02.89), Amery (10:02.98), Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (10:04.55) and Prescott (10:05.3) advanced. A bad exchange disqualifi ed Medford’s 400-meter team of Perrin, Brost, Beran and Machon. Logan (49.86), Mosinee (50.67), Rice Lake (51.48) and Osceola (51.49) advanced.

Along with her pole vault success, Machon placed 10th in the 100-meter high hurdles preliminaries with a time of 17.52 seconds. She was one spot and 0.04 seconds away from qualifying for the final, which was won by Mauston’s Brie Eckerman in 15.45 seconds.

Daniels finished 11th in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 6:00.53. Gremban won in 5:01.21. Perrin was 11th in the 100-meter dash preliminaries at 13.41 seconds, two spots and 0.13 seconds away from advancing. Amery freshman Luciana Aizpurua won the final in 12.33 seconds. Rudolph finished 15th in the 300-meter low hurdles with her time of 54.18 seconds. Eckerman won that race in 46.19 seconds.

Joe Sullivan

Meredith Richter