ALL-GNC GIRLS BASKETBALL - Klingbeil a unanimous first-team pick; Baumgartner lands on second team

ALL-GNC GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Medford Raiders’ Taylor Klingbeil made a super sophomore jump to being a unanimous first-team pick and fellow sophomore Kayla Baumgartner had firstteam worthy numbers but landed on the second team in the voting for the 2024-25 All-Great Northern Conference girls basketball squads.

Klingbeil, who got honorable mention last year, had a monster second season, setting Medford’s single-season scoring record with 473 points, averaging 18.9 points per game while appearing in 25 of the team’s 26 games. She was the conference’s second-leading scorer and was among the league leaders in free throw shooting, field goal percentage, steals and rebounding.

Baumgartner, a first-team pick last year, fell just short of getting back despite ranking second in the league in rebounding, fifth in scoring and second in blocked shots.

Junior Rylee Hraby got honorable mention for the second straight year and senior Toryn Rau closed her hoops career by getting honorable mention as well.

Medford’s All-GNC awards follow a 1412 season under third-year head coach Chad Fronk that included a 7-5 record in the conference, good for a third-place tie with Rhinelander. For the second straight year, Medford started 2-8 against a frontloaded schedule, but a five-game midseason win streak and a seven-game run late got the Raiders over .500 before a 5535 loss at Mosinee in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal ended their year on Feb. 28.

A 7.5-point-per-game scorer a year ago, Klingbeil started this season with 26-point efforts in the second game of the year at Chippewa Falls and in the GNC opener Dec. 3 at Rhinelander and took off from there. She was one of three unanimous first-team choices by the GNC’s coaching staffs, joining now three-time Player of the Year Kristina Ouimette of Lakeland and junior Taelyn Jirschele of Mosinee. Ava Evenhouse and Ali Timmerman of conference-champion Lakeland filled out this year’s first team.

In conference play, Klingbeil averaged 19.8 points per game to trail only Ouimette’s 31.9 points per game. She added 5.2 rebounds per outing in 12 GNC contests, 3.0 steals, 1.4 3-pointers and shot 78.2% from the free throw line (43 of 55) to rank second behind Ouimette (81.3%) and shot 47.1% from the field, making 89 of 189 attempts.

Her outstanding work in GNC play started with the 26-point, 11-rebound double-double she posted at Rhinelander Dec. 3, which wound up being Medford’s most disappointing loss of the year, a 6358 overtime setback where the Raiders lost a 21-point lead. She had another big game in the rematch with the Hodags Jan. 17, scoring 28 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Klingbeil had 25 points and seven rebounds in a 64-26 win at Northland Pines on Jan. 9 and 26 points, eight steals, six rebounds and four assists in a 63-30 win at Tomahawk on Jan. 14. She had 21 points, seven rebounds, seven steals, three assists and four blocked shots in a 68-29 home win over Pines on Feb. 14. She scored 14 and 15 points in the two losses to Lakeland and had 21 points in a Jan. 31 loss to second-place Mosinee.

Klingbeil set a career-high 31 points in Medford’s thrilling 78-71 overtime win over Wisconsin Rapids in non-conference play on Feb. 7. At 667 career points, Klingbeil is on track to hit 1,000 already next season.

So is Baumgartner, who averaged 13.3 points per game in league play as well as overall while appearing in all 26 games. She pulled down 9.9 rebounds per game in GNC play and 9.2 overall. Baumgartner also averaged 2.4 blocked shots per game to rank second in the conference behind Tomahawk’s Freya Alberg (2.8).

Baumgartner played a bit of a doeverything role for Medford, scoring inside, while also making 40 3-pointers, which led the team and tied for fourthmost in Medford history in a season. Her 238 rebounds ranked second in Medford history for a single season behind Heidi Barron’s 260 rebounds in the 1986-87 season. Her 423 career rebounds puts her over halfway to the career record of 812 set by 1989 graduate Angie Dittrich. Baumgartner also served as one of Medford’s primary ball handlers and averaged 2.1 assists per game.

Baumgartner posted 10 doubledoubles during the season, including a stretch of six straight in February. She scored a season-high 24 points against WIAA Division 2 sectional champion Rice Lake in a 69-62 loss on Dec. 17. She had 15 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots in a 74-45 loss at Lakeland on Dec. 6; 18 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocked shots in a 75-51 loss to Mosinee on Jan. 31; 19 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and three blocks in a 72-30 win at Antigo on Feb. 11 and 16 points and 12 rebounds in the Feb. 14 win over Pines. She had two impressive non-conference double-doubles with 13 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals in a 63-43 win at New London on Jan. 13 and 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in the Rapids win.

Hraby and Rau were among 15 players to get honorable mention.

Hraby averaged 7.3 points per game in GNC play and 7.2 points overall in 26 games. She averaged 4.0 rebounds in GNC games, 2.0 steals and 2.4 assists. She made 18 3-pointers in GNC plan and 39 overall and ranks second in Medford’s alltime annals with 106 made 3s, trailing only 2013 graduate Katie Messman (142).

Hraby scored a season-high 14 points while making four of nine 3s in the home win over Pines on Feb. 14. She had 11 points, five rebounds, five steals and four assists in a 68-27 home win over Antigo on Jan. 7 and and also hurt the Red Robins in Antigo with eight points, seven rebounds, five steals, four assists and two blocked shots. She had 10 points and four rebounds in a 53-43 loss at Mosinee on Dec. 13 and eight points, five rebounds and four assists in a 50-30 win over Tomahawk on Feb. 20. She had 12 points in Medford’s regional win over Wausau East on Feb. 25 and had nine points, including the memorable game-tying 3pointer that sent the Rapids game into overtime. Hraby had 13 points in a 49-40 non-conference win over a solid Crandon squad on Feb. 18.

Rau started every game for the Raiders this year and averaged 5.6 points, 2.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game overall. In GNC play, she averaged 6.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.8 steals.

Rau scored a career-high 15 points and added five rebounds, four assists and three steals at Antigo. She had 10 points in the home win over Rhinelander and scored nine points with eight rebounds and five assists in the road loss to the Hodags. She had seven points with two key 3-pointers and seven rebounds in the home win over Tomahawk.

In non-conference play, Rau had nine points and eight points in tough games against Oostburg and Kaukauna at the Oostburg tournament Dec. 27-28, 10 points and six rebounds in the Rapids win and 11 points at Crandon.

Lakeland survived two three-point games with Mosinee to finish with a 12-0 GNC record. The T-Birds now own a 41game GNC winning streak. The T-Birds were the conference’s only sectional qualifier. They blew out Mosinee 66-40 in a regional final, but then lost to Rice Lake 59-47 in a sectional semifinal at Ashland. Mosinee’s first-year head coach Joshua Hau was named the GNC Coach of the Year after leading the Indians to a 10-2 league record and an 18-7 mark overall. The Indians beat Rice Lake 57-50 in the final week of the regular season.

Kayla Baumgartner Second Team

Rylee Hraby Hon. Mention

Toryn Rau Hon. Mention