Machon places in pole vault, hurdles to lead Medford girls at West

WAUSAU WEST GIRLS INVITE

Jaylin Machon placed twice to lead the Medford Raiders in scoring at Tuesday’s 16-team Wausau West Girls Indoor Invitational.

While the Raiders did take a handful of veterans, Tuesday’s meet was an opportunity for several lesser-known names to get some varsity action as the indoor season winds down. The final indoor meet on the schedule is tonight, Thursday, at Northland Pines for the girls and boys teams.

Medford placed 11th in the team standings with 24 points, finishing ahead of Stanley-Boyd (23), Wisconsin Rapids (22), Faith Christian Academy (10), Pittsville (8) and Menominee Indian (7). The host Warriors won the meet with 111.5 points, while Merrill (69), Wittenberg-Birnamwood (68.5), Wausau East (65), Colby (55), Loyal (52.5), Shawano (44), Newman Catholic (36.5), Waupaca (27) and Edgar (26) rounded out the top 10.

Machon is one of those veterans who got more work in Tuesday. She got eight of Medford’s points in the pole vault, where she again topped out at 9 feet, 6 inches. That put her in second place behind Colby’s Willow Oehmichen, who cleared 10-6. Sheila Tellock of Loyal was in third at 9 feet. Raider Lillie Gleichauf tied for 10th by clearing a season-best 6-6.

Machon added five more points with a fourth-place finish in the 55-meter hurdles. She had the fifth-best preliminary time out of 21 entrants at 10.21 seconds and lowered her time to 10.11 seconds in the final. Colby’s Hayden Willner won the race in 9.57 secondds, just ahead of Edgar’s Amber Skrzypcak (9.92) and Wausau West’s Maci Heise (9.99).

Junior Lindsey Klapatauskas scored four points with a fifth-place finish in the triple jump. Her best distance was 302.5, 4.5 inches ahead of Shawano’s Macey Nelson and Loyal’s Molly Zvolena. Natalie Brenner of Newman Catholic won at 31-10.25. Raider Stacy Stolp was 11th at 28-5 and Adalyn Dittrich was 16th at 2311. Klapatauskas also finished 14th in the shot put (27 feet) and 14th in the 55-meter dash preliminaries at 8.53 seconds.

Three sixth-place points went to the 1,600-meter relay team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Gleichauf, Autumn Cooley and Riley Clark, who finished in 5:13.01, well ahead of seventh-place Waupaca (5:22.32). Wausau East won the race in 4:45.84, easily beating runner-up Merrill (4:53.39). Pilgrim scored three points individually with her sixth-place finish in the 400-meter dash. She was timed at 1:12.83. Gleichauf got the eighth-place point at 1:13.81 and Cooley was 10th in 1:17.39. Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Reese Rogowski won in 1:06.18.

Medford’s four-lap relay team of Alexis Zuleger, Clark, Rachel Wesle and Brenley Beran just missed the scoring column by taking ninth in its race. A time of 1:34.56 left them 0.9 seconds behind eighth-place Merrill. Loyal won in 1:23.74. The sprint medley team of Stolp, Dittrich, Amy Espinoza and Ashley Hernandez was 12th in 3:21.56 and beat Wisconsin Rapids by 3.26 seconds. Edgar won it in 2:53.1.

In field events, Cooley tied for 16th in the high jump at 4 feet, Wesle was 19th in the shot put at 24-10 and Rivalee Stokes was 26th at 22-10.75. Beran was 25th in the long jump at 12-4, while Stolp (12-2) was 28th and Hernandez (10-10.25) was 32nd.

On the track, Dittrich was 17th in the 200-meter hurdles at 41.43 seconds, while Gleichauf was 17th (3:12.56) and Espinoza was 20th (3:21.86) in the 800-meter run. Zuleger was 20th in 34.04 seconds, Wesle was 23rd at 35.02 seconds and Hernandez was 28th at 36.76 seconds in the 200-meter dash. Zuleger was 23rd at 8.78 seconds and Dittrich was 33rd at 9.52 seconds in the 55-meter dash prelims.

Medford hopes to start outdoor competition April 13 when it hosts its annual Early Bird Invitational which starts at 4 p.m.