THEY’RE BACK!
WIAA DIV. 2 CROSS COUNTRY SECTIONAL
Girls team, Hraby to run again at Rapids
The Medford Raiders and West Salem Panthers were the favorites going into Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 girls cross country sectional race in Black River Falls to earn the top two team spots and berths in this Saturday’s state race.
The Raiders just made it clear that they didn’t intend to qualify as the sectional runner-up.
Less than three weeks after beating West Salem by just two points at Skyline Golf Course in the Black River Falls Invitational, the Raiders put their five scorers among the top 10 finishers and won the sectional championship by a 24-point margin over West Salem. It’s Medford’s fourth straight sectional title in Division 2 races. Since 2018, the Raiders have only been denied in 2020 when they bumped up to Division 1 and finished third.
“Everyone really came out and showed they wanted it. It was awesome,” junior Ella Daniels said of the team’s performance on a gorgeous, almost- too-warm late October day. “We all knew we wanted it,” Ella Dassow said. “That’s all we could think about was that two-point win. We wanted to do better.”
The Raiders totaled just 31 points. Not only were the five scorers in the top 10 in a field of 89 runners, Brooke Rudolph was 13th as the sixth finisher and freshman Morgan Liske was 22nd as the seventh before some teams had their second or even first finishers.
“There’s not a lot of words, except awesome and great and wonderful and amazing,” head coach Sherry Meyer said.
“We weren’t settling for a two-point space,” assistant coach Stephen Reynolds said. “We wanted to make sure we were here and we put our stamp on it.” In the boys race, Medford placed seventh out of 16 scoring teams, but the Raiders are sending junior Tanner Hraby to his second straight state meet. He finished fourth out of 111 finishers to solidly earn his place among the top five qualifying individuals.
Saturday’s WIAA state championships will again be held at The Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. The Division 2 girls race starts at 12:40 p.m., while Hraby and the boys run at 2:35 p.m.
Girls dominate
Individually for Medford in the girls race, junior Meredith Richter continued her tremendous season with a secondplace time of 20:10.3. She was actually a bit disappointed as the surprise winner of the race was Mosinee sophomore Britt Fitzgerald in 20:00.6. Richter was second and Fitzgerald was 37 seconds behind in third a week earlier in the Great Northern Conference meet in Medford.
“Not exactly what I was hoping for,” Richter said. “Mosinee kind of came out of nowhere. But that’s OK. I’m not going to say it was an off day, because I felt fine.”
“I think Meredith got taken by surprise a little bit,” Meyer said. “It was a great race. It was nothing to feel bad about. When you have an expectation and a goal that doesn’t quite happen the way you want, sometimes it sets you down a little bit.”
Altoona sophomore Greta Peters actually led for about two-thirds of the girls race before unfortunately collapsing on the course. Richter led momentarily before Fitzgerald took the lead for good. Richter was 31.4 seconds ahead of West Salem’s top runner, Mia Olson, who place third. Tomahawk’s Rachael Reilly was fourth in 20:58.1.
Daniels was Medford’s next finisher, placing sixth in 21:19.9. While she was 8.5 seconds behind Arcadia’s Tegan Michalak, she did her job by finishing six seconds ahead of West Salem’s Morgan Quackenbush.
“When I finished I got sixth and I was surprised because I was predicting between that 12th and 18th,” Daniels said. “I felt really good. I would just look at the girl ahead of me and decide like, why does she get to beat me? So then I’d just pass her and just kept picking them off the whole race.”
After Quackenbush, Medford sealed the deal with Bjorg Risa taking eighth in 21:26.4, freshman Mallory Richter taking ninth in a season-best 21:27.3 and Dassow placing 10th in a season-best 21:28.6.
“I felt pretty tired actually,” Dassow said. “So I thought I was going slower, but I actually was doing pretty good. Then at the end, me and Mallory and Bjorg all packed up, so that was awesome to see.”
“I’m super proud of all of us,” Mallory Richter said. “I know we’ve worked super- duper hard for this. I’m glad we could do it together. I really like this team and how we work together really well.”
Risa, the team’s exchange student from Norway, didn’t run in that Oct. 4 meet and seemed to be back at full strength with her second-best time of the season. She said it’s been a thrill to come to Medford and help the Raiders reach their state goal.
“I have enjoyed it,” Risa said. “Back in Norway, we don’t really have a team sport like this, so I really enjoy being on a team and having everyone here support me. It’s been great.”
Rudolph, a senior, got the job done by beating two West Salem Panthers with her 13th-place time of 21:42.4.
“It was pretty good,” she said. “Me and that West Salem girl (Kennedy Garbers, 14th in 21:45.5) kept going back and forth. So at the finish I wasn’t going to let her beat me. No way. I’m not going to give them that extra couple points.”
Liske’s 22nd-place time was 22:20.3. “It was good,” Liske said. “Everybody ran really well and I’m glad everybody packed up. Even if you’re not like a top runner, it’s still good because your points still count. You’re still in it for everybody.”
West Salem earned the second state berth with 55 points, well ahead of the third-place Tomahawk Hatchets (91). Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (145) and Wisconsin Dells (177) rounded out the top five.
Not only did the team want to make a statement in the sectional, it also appears to feel a bit stung by a recent drop in the state’s Division 2 rankings. Once a topfive team, the Raiders were ranked 12th in the coaches poll going into the sectional. That may add a another ounce or two of motivation going into state, where the Raiders finished eighth last season, fourth in 2019 and first in 2018.
“Just run my heart out. That’s all I’m thinking,” Dassow said.
“It’s the last race I’ll ever run with this team,” Rudolph said.
“I feel like now that we’re there, it’s state. it’s everything you have,” Daniels said. “There’s nothing left to hold on to.”
“It’s a lot like sectional,” Meredith Richter said when it comes to advice for the freshmen and Risa. “The course is very similar. But nothing can compare to the teams, the people. It’s a whole different thing. You can’t know until you experience it.”
Boys race
The Raiders knew their chances of advancing as a team were slim, but they also knew Hraby’s chances of qualifying as one of the top five individuals from non-qualifying teams were good and they felt senior Josh Clark had a shot to get in that top five as well.
Hraby’s state spot was never seriously in doubt. His time of 17:10.5 only put him behind champion Eli Boppart of Mauston (16:33.3), Ian Hazen of Elk Mound (16:49.6) and Anders Michaelsen of Bloomer (17:03.4). With Mauston winning the team competition, Hraby qualified as the third individual. Elk Mound’s Aiden Schiferl (17:15.2) and Colby-Abbotsford’s Max Adams (17:17.8) were the fourth and fifth qualifiers, finishing fifth and sixth overall.
Clark gave it all he had and finished ninth overall. But with Boppart being the only runner ahead of him that was on a state qualifying team (Mauston or West Salem), he came up three spots shorts in a fine time of 17:40.8.
“Obviously going in I was feeling very confident and solid about Tanner and Josh was right on the cusp when you looked at the numbers,” Meyer said. “Of course I was really hoping for it. Sometimes the cards fall like they do. He’s worked really hard for it this season and he had a great race.”
“I was tired,” Hraby said. “It was a tiring race. It was hot out. A lot of our practices have been in the cold. We haven’t ran in heat in a while. I knew Eli would be there, I wasn’t sure about the other kids so I figured I’d try to stay with them for a little bit, but they were fast. They ran a great race and I thought I ran a pretty good race.”
Hraby said his strategy became pretty simple when he know he couldn’t catch the top three.
“I got out there and I was in third for a bit, but then I got passed,” he said. “I figured I’d just sit in fourth and if I can hold my spot I’m good. I figured I have to be in the top five. I got fourth, so I just held it and did what I had to do.”
Hraby’s fastest time of the year is 17:07, which he set in the first race at Black River Falls. He was 25th in last year’s state race in 17:12.3.
“Really the goal is to get to state and hopefully run fast,” he said. “I’m hoping for sub-17 at state. That’s the plan. I think there’s a little shot at podium, but I’m just hoping for top 20 for sure. Now I gotta go. I can’t just kind of sit at 17 flat. I’m going to have to go.”
Medford juniors Logan Gubser (19:28.4) and Nick Steliga (19:29.3) stuck together for most of the race and placed 46th and 47th. Senior Lucas Borman ended his much-improved year in 74th place 21:01.5. Sophomore Brandon Curtis (21:45.5) and senior Ervin Ulrich (23:15.8), both first-year team members, were 86th and 103rd in their first cross country sectional appearances.
“All the boys did well,” Meyer said. “Nick and Logan were together and racing hard. Lucas has just improved by leaps and bounds obviously over the last four years, especially from last year to this year. Ervin got a chance to run varsity which was fun to see him. When we told him he was running varsity his face just lit up. I wish I had a video of it. He was so excited. Brandon is moving up too. He’s young. He’s never run cross before, he’s asking a lot of questions and really improving. It’s going to be fun to see what he can do in the next couple of years.”
The Raiders totaled 180 points to finish behind Mauston (72), West Salem (78), Bloomer (108), Altoona (132), Arcadia (158) and Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (169). Tomahawk was ninth (209) and Mosinee was 16th (437).
Medford’s Logan Gubser (l.) and Nick Steliga ran with each other for much of the boys race during Saturday’s WIAA Division 2 Black River Falls sectional. They finished 46th and 47th.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
