MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD - Relays post good times at Merrill; Richter sets new 400 record

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

MATT FREY

SPORTS EDITOR

Medford’s track and field teams swept the pole vault championships, earned several second-place finishes and excelled in relays at Friday’s Otto Bacher Invitational hosted by Merrill.

Gage Losiewicz won the boys pole vault and he was part of the Raiders’ other winner in the boys meet, the 1,600-meter relay. The Raiders scored well with their 23 entries, totaling 74 points to place third out of 11 teams. The girls scored 75.5 points, which was good for fifth, and got a win from their top pole vaulter, Jaylin Machon.

Losiewicz’s win in the pole vault came at a height of 13 feet, tying his best mark of the season, which he’s hit several times. He got 6 inches higher than Wausau East’s Thomas Lowe, while East’s Quinn Barber was third at 12 feet. Raider Jordan Lavin tied for ninth at 9 feet.

To end the meet, Losiewicz, Adyn Gripentrog, Logan Gubser and Isaac Kautzer got the edge over Newman Catholic in an exciting finish to the 1,600-meter relay, winning by 0.6 seconds in 3:36.78. That time was easily the best for a Medford team this spring, a common theme for both Medford’s boys and girls Friday.

That race capped a strong night for Kautzer. He and Gubser set personal-best times of 50.66 and 50.96 seconds respectively while placing second and third in the 400-meter dash just behind Newman’s Nolyn Lindner (48.82). Gubser was 1.31 seconds ahead of fourth-place sprinter Edmond Woods of Wausau East.

Kautzer lowered his 200-meter dash time to 23.67 seconds and took fourth, not far behind Lindner, who won in 23.35 seconds.

Once again, Evan Paul was a top scorer for Medford, scoring in three individual events. His top finish was second in the triple jump, where he went 39 feet, 10 inches, 2 inches ahead of third-place finisher Pacey Weber of Wausau East. Three Lakes’ Tyler Janikowski won at 41-7. Medford’s Owen Stockwell and Axel Brushaber tied for 10th at 35-9. That was a season-best for Brushaber, a freshman.

Paul was fifth in the long jump at 18-11. That was won by Toby Volkmann of Three Lakes at 20-6.5. In the high jump, Paul cleared 5-8 to also place fifth. Volkmann won that at 6 feet, while Rhinelander’s Truman Lamers hit 5-10. Paul was one of four jumpers to top out at 5-8.

Paxton Rothmeier, Lavin, Cory Lindahl and Paul sprinted to third place in the 400-meter relay with a time of 46.98 seconds, Medford’s best time of the spring. The Raiders trailed Wausau East (44.25) and Northland Pines (45.03) and beat fourth-place Antigo by 1.65 seconds.

Evan Pagel, Peyton Ried, Anthony Seidel and Gripentrog took fourth in the 3,200-meter relay at 9:14.27, Medford’s best time by far this spring in that event. Wausau East won in 8:57.09, followed by Northland Pines (9:08.54) and Tomahawk (9:11.47). Rhinelander (9:28.27) was a distant fifth.

Rothmeier, Hayden Koester, Brushaber and Losiewicz took fifth in the 800-meter at 1:40.28, 1.73 seconds ahead of Merrill. Pines won in 1:32.68, followed by Antigo (1:35.88), Wausau East (1:36.62) and Mosinee (1:38.82).

Raider Will Daniels placed fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles at 17.9 seconds, beating his preliminary time by 0.18 seconds. Rothmeier got the ninth and last spot in the 100-meter dash final with a preliminary time of 12.21 seconds and he had an exact repeat of his place and time in the final.

Brandon Curtis was ninth in the 3,200-meter run in a personal-best 11:22.24. He was 4.47 seconds away from scoring. Hudson Briggs was 12th in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at 48.56 seconds.

Lindahl was 15th in the shot put (339.5) and 23rd in the discus (74-6). Logan Langdon was 18th in the discus (89-10) and 21st in the shot put (32 feet), improving his personal bests by an inch in each. William Bartnik was 22nd in the discus at 77 feet.

Wausau East dominated the boys meet with 173 points, more than doubling second-place Northland Pines (85.5). Rhinelander was two points behind Medford with 72 points, followed by Three Lakes (70), Mosinee (67), Newman Catholic (47.5), Antigo (40), Tomahawk (35), Crandon (27) and Merrill (11).

In the girls meet, Machon hit 10 feet to win the pole vault competition by a foot over Tomahawk’s Alicia Voermans and she placed second in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 17.69 seconds in the final, 0.51 seconds behind Rhinelander’s Aila Bergmann to account for 18 of Medford’s points. Machon was 0.27 seconds faster in the high hurdle preliminaries, where she was 0.1 seconds behind Bergmann. Medford earned two second-place and two fifth-place finishes in relays.

The 3,200-meter team of Felicity Ziehlke, Carly Koski, Morgan Liske and Ella Dassow was second in its race at 11:02.03, well ahead of Wausau East (11:06.55) and trailing Tomahawk (10:38.97).

The 800-meter team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Toryn Rau, Rivalee Stokes and Avery Losiewicz was second in 1:51.09, 1.06 seconds ahead of Rhinelander and 2.21 seconds behind the top team from Northland Pines. That was the best time a Medford team has had this season.

Brenley Beran, Lindsey Klapatauskas, Rachel Wesle and Bridget Wesle took fifth in the 400-meter relay at 56.64 seconds, another season-best for Medford. Northland Pines won in 51.88 seconds. Pilgrim, Rau, Liske and Alexis Zuleger closed out the meet with a fifth-place time of 4:30 in the 1,600-meter relay. Newman Catholic won that race in 4:21.01.

Losiewicz added a third-place time of 52.04 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles, trailing Bergmann (48.29) and Evie Bates (51.7) of Newman. She was 1.11 seconds ahead of fourth-place Eva Heck of Rhinelander. Machon was eighth at 55.7 seconds. Losiewicz was sixth in the shot put with an improved distance of 29-3 and she tied for 11th in the pole vault at 7 feet. Rachel Wesle was ninth in the shot put at 28-11.5.

Ziehlke took third in the 1,600-meter run at an improved time of 6:06.08, while Dassow got two seventh-place points at 6:16.95. Koski lowered her time considerably while taking fourth in the 3,200-meter run at 14:13.73. In the 800 meters, Lindsay Kahn came in fifth at 2:44.8, and Ella Daniels tied Rhinelander’s Brynn Teter for sixth in a season-best 2:47.77.

Stokes put four points on Medford’s tally with a fifth-place throw of 95-10 in the discus. Bridget Wesle was 18th at 694. Stokes also took 13th in the 200-meter dash (28.63), while Zuleger (30.06) was 22nd. Klapatauskas went 29-8 to place 11th in the triple jump.

Brenley Beran improved to 13-4 and took 12th in the long jump, while Rau tied for 13th at 13-2. Beran also was 15th in the 100-meter dash (14.42). Addison Juedes was 13th (1:09.49) and Zuleger was 14th (1:10.43) in the 400-meter dash.

Tomahawk won the meet with 121.5 points, 30 better than Northland Pines. Wausau East (89) and Rhinelander (85.5) were just ahead of Medford’s 75.5 points. Newman Catholic was sixth with 74 points, followed by Merrill (50), Antigo (44), Crandon (32), Mosinee (30) and Three Lakes (1).

Medford is at the Marshfield Invitational Friday. That begins at 4:30 p.m. Then it’s on to the meets that matter most, starting with the Great Northern Conference Championships, which Medford will host on Tuesday, starting at 4 p.m.

Medford also will host the GNC JV meet on May 16.

New record at Arrowhead

For the second straight weekend, Medford’s Meredith Richter went to the Milwaukee suburbs and tested herself against some tough competition.

At Saturday’s Myrhum Invitational hosted by Hartland Arrowhead, Richter lowered her school record in the 400-meter dash and took second in the 800-meter run.

Richter took fifth out of 30 entrants in the 400, and her time of 59.47 seconds broke her own school record of 59.88 set at last year’s Great Northern Conference meet. Her best time this year had been 59.95.

Richter was one of eight runners to break the one-minute barrier Saturday. Arrowhead senior Taylor Thimmesch, the fifth-place Division 1 finisher at state last year, won the race in 56.98 seconds, while her teammate, Avery Bott, was second at 58.19 seconds. West De Pere’s Faith Kibbe (58.62) and Mequon Homestead’s Charlotte Lueck (59.13) also finished ahead of Richter. Mukwonago’s Grace Graczyk (59.91) was sixth.

Richter’s time is the third-best of the year so far among Division 2 girls, according to this week’s Wisconsin MileSpit honor roll. Tomahawk’s Elise Gibeault got the top one Friday in Merrill at 58.71 seconds.

In the 800-meter run, Richter finished in a season-best 2:18.63 that was beaten only by Cedarburg sophomore Charlize-Trinity McKenzie (2:17.42). Richter was 2.06 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Shaela Elert of Sun Prairie. Hannah Hallick of Madison Country Day was fourth at 2:21.13.

Richter’s time ranks fourth on this week’s Division 2 honor roll behind two potential sectional rivals, Nora Gremban of Northland Pines (2:16.3) and Ciara Hartman of Blomer (2:17.58).

Richter gave Medford 12 team points in the meet, which was good for 20th place out of 42 scoring girls teams.

Meredith Richter