Medford grads hit the track; Wright completes first year

The 2019-20 college sports year came to a premature end in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, but several local athletes were able to complete their winter seasons in indoor track and basketball.

Victor Rinaldi, a 2018 Medford graduate, placed 11th in the men’s 60-meter dash at the 2020 WIAC Indoor Championships, held Feb. 28-29 at UW-Oshkosh. His time was 7.03 seconds, just 0.03 seconds shy of a top-eight finish and a spot in the finals. The Warhawks were fourth out of eight teams in the meet’s final standings with 74.3333 points. UW-La Crosse won it with 169 points, followed by UW-Oshkosh (148.5) and UW-Eau Claire (119.6666).

Rinaldi started the indoor season by finishing fourth in the 60-meter dash in 7.09 seconds in the Jan. 25 Karl Schlender Open hosted by Whitewater. He was 14th in a time of 7.14 seconds a week later in the UW-Whitewater Warhawk Classic.

He placed eighth in the 200-meter dash in a time of 22.71 seconds and 13th in the 60-meter dash in 7.15 seconds in the Feb. 15 Midwest Elite Invitational hosted by the Warhawks.

The sophomore hit his stride in the Feb. 21 Slick Invite hosted by North Central College in Naperville, Ill. He placed second in the 60-meter dash preliminaries at 7.08 seconds and did much better in the finals, still placing second but at a swift 6.99 seconds, 0.05 seconds behind winner and teammate Dwayne Ford, who was a qualifier for the NCAA Division III championships before they were canceled. Later in the meet, he won the 200-meter dash, beating 30 other competitors with his time of 22.59 seconds. He beat runner-up Will DeBolt of Lewis by 0.14 seconds.

Rinaldi had the top preliminary time in the 60-meter dash in the March 6 UWPlatteville Last Chance Meet at 7.016 seconds and then took third in the final at 6.994 seconds behind Ford (6.92) and Stout’s Brent Heilman (6.97).

Jake Sullivan, a 2017 Medford graduate and a junior 400-meter sprinter at UW-La Crosse, was unable to compete during the indoor season due to illness.

Rinaldi and Sullivan were part of All-American relay teams at last May’s NCAA Division III outdoor national championships and Sullivan was part of an All-American team at last March’s indoor national championships.

At the Division I level, Osy Ekwueme, a 2017 Medford graduate, is a junior for the Notre Dame men’s track and field squad, continuing to primarily work in the triple jump.

He started the winter with a jump of 13.14 meters (43-1.5) that was good for second place out of four competitors in Notre Dame’s Blue and Gold Invitational on Dec. 6. He was 9.75 inches behind winner Jefferson Osunkwo of Marquette. He also ran the 60-meter dash in 7.45 seconds to finish 22nd out of 30 sprinters.

Ekwueme jumped 12.97 meters (42-6.75) to place sixth out of 17 triple jumpers at the Jan. 17 Grand Valley State Invitational in Allendale, Mich., and placed eighth in the Jan. 25 Notre Dame Invitational with a jump of 13.03 meters (42-9). He also was part of a men’s 4x400-meter relay team that took sixth in 3:29.57 in that meet.

Ekwueme improved to 13.3 meters (43-7.75) at the Feb. 22 Alex Wilson Invitational, hosted by the Fighting Irish. That was good for fifth place. Purdue’s Tamar Greene won at 15.95 meters (52-4).

The Irish’s men’s team placed fourth out of 15 teams in the Feb. 27-29 Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Championships with 70 points. The Irish, who hosted the meet, trailed Florida State (140), Virginia Tech (109) and Virginia (87).

Grace Kelley, a 2019 Medford graduate, debuted this winter as a distance runner for the Winona State women’s track and field squad.

With the exception of one meet, the 3,000-meter run was Kelley’s specialty during the indoor season. She started the season by placing third out of nine runners in a time of 11:40.49 at the Jan. 18 Early Birdinal, hosted by St. Mary’s University. A week later at the UW-Stout Open, Kelley placed 21st out of 31 entrants in an improved time of 11:29.79.

Kelley posted a season-best time of 11:28.69 while taking 10th out of 16 entrants at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Indoor Challenge on Feb. 15 and earned a fifth-place finish out of nine runners with a time of 11:33.47 in the Maverick Invitational, hosted by Minnesota State-Mankato on Feb. 21.

Kelley competed in the mile run at the Mark Schuck Open, also held in Mankato Jan. 31-Feb. 1. She finished 48th out of 61 entrants in 5:45.29. The Warriors won that 16-team meet with 121 points, 23 more than runner-up Augustana of South Dakota.

Winona State scored 50 points to take fourth in the NSIC Indoor Championships, held Feb. 28-29 in Mankato.

Lauren Meyer, a 2019 Medford graduate, began her track career at UW-Stout with some 200- and 400-meter running for the Blue Devils.

Individually, Meyer opened with a 13th-place time of 1:05.64 in the 400-meter dash and a 24th-place time of 29.02 seconds in the 200-meter dash in the Jan. 25 Stout Open. Both would be her best open times of the season.

She was 50th in the 200 at the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge on Feb. 22 with a time of 29.14 seconds. She took 12th in the 400 at 1:05.99 in the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 Warren Bowlus Open hosted by Stout and was 16th at 1:07.93 in the Big Dawg Invitational hosted by UW-Stevens Point Feb. 8.

Meyer was on Stout’s second-place 4x400-meter relay team at the Bowlus Open. The team’s time was 4:16.62, 3.53 seconds behind Minnesota-Duluth. Meyer’s split was 1:04.575. She was on Stout’s fifth-place team at Point on Feb. 8, which finished in 4:17.93 and she was on its seventh- place team at the St. Thomas Showcase. The Blue Devils finished in 4:26.48.

Stout placed sixth at the WIAC Indoor Championship with 48.5 points.

Basketball

In basketball, 2019 Rib Lake graduate

Raejana Wright appeared in 20 games during her freshman season with Barton College, an NCAA Division II school located in Wilson, N.C.

The Bulldogs went 24-6 and reached the March 8 championship game of the Conference Carolinas Conference tournament in Spartanburg, S.C., which it lost 67-65 to fourth-seeded Limestone. Barton was the second seed. Wright played three minutes in the game and was credited with one offensive rebound.

Barton was waiting to hear if it would have been selected to play in the NCAA Division II tournament when the remainder of the season was canceled.

Barton went 19-3 during the conference season and finished two games behind 21-1 Belmont Abbey.

The 6-2 Wright scored 54 points in 164 minutes of court time, making 20 of 48 shots from the field (41.7%) and 14 of her 15 free throws (93.3%). She grabbed 62 rebounds to average 3.1 per game and had eight assists, two steals and 10 blocked shots.

Wright appeared in 14 Carolinas Conference games, which accounted for 139 of her minutes. She scored 45 of her points in league games and that’s where she grabbed 49 of her rebounds, had all eight assists and had seven of her blocked shots. She was a perfect 11 of 11 from the free throw line in conference play.

She scored eight points in two games. She reached that total in just 11 minutes in a 74-64 home win over Limestone on Dec. 3, making both free throws and going three of six from the field. She pulled down a quick seven rebounds and added two blocks and an assist in that appearance, helping spark a key run for the Bulldogs in the second quarter.

Wright played a season-high 19 minutes, made all four of her free throws and was two of three from the field in a blowout 88-58 win at Chowan on Feb. 11. She had four rebounds and two assists in the win. She had a season-high nine rebounds and four points while playing 13 minutes in a 78-41 win over King on Dec. 14. Wright scored five points in eight minutes in a 95-76 win at Lees-McRae on Jan. 4 and scored five points while making both of her shots from the field and grabbing three rebounds in the team’s 76-51 win over Emmanuel, Ga., in the March 7 semifinals of the conference tournament. She played six minutes in that game.

Hailey Leu, a 2018 Medford graduate, averaged 4.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game as a sophomore for the UW-Stevens Point/Marshfield Marauders women’s basketball team, which went 2-9.

She had a season-high 16 points while making eight of 15 shots in a 54-51 loss to UW-Milwaukee/Washington County on Dec. 7 and 12 points in a 60-44 loss to UWEau Claire/Barron County on Nov. 18. Her rebounding season high was six in a 53-24 loss to UW-Green Bay/Marinette on Nov. 2 and she grabbed five boards on two other occasions. Leu blocked three shots, had four rebounds and scored seven points in a 42-31 win over Washington County on Jan. 17.

Baseball

Cade Alexander, a 2019 Medford graduate, made six pitching appearances for Viterbo University before the VHawks’ season ended in mid-March. The team had a 5-15 combined record at the time between its fall and spring schedules.

In six appearances, Alexander had no record and had pitched seven innings with a 12.86 earned run average. He had allowed 13 runs, 10 of which were earned, and 13 hits with four strikeouts, five walks, three hit batters and one wild pitch.

In his last outing March 11 against the Indiana Institute of Technology, Alexander was tagged for three runs on four hits and a walk in a rough fifth inning of a 9-3 loss in Emerson, Ga. He pitched 1.2 relief innings in a 4-1 loss to Reinhardt University March 9 in a game played at Waleska, Ga. He walked four and allowed two runs and a hit. He struck out two, walked two and allowed three runs and a hit in an inning of work in an 18-6 loss to Madonna University Feb. 23 in Jacksonville, Ill. In the fall, Alexander pitched 3.1 innings, allowing seven hits and five earned runs while striking out two batters and walking one.

He pitched a scoreless inning in the first game of the brief 11-game fall season, a 5-1 win over Valley City State (N.D.) on Sept. 14. He got his two strikeouts while pitching 1.1 innings in a 2-0 loss to Jamestown (N.D.) on Sept. 28. He had a tough outing at Harris-Stowe State in St. Louis on Oct. 5, allowing five runs and six hits in the fifth inning of a 15-10 loss.

Former Rib Lake-Prentice football quarterback Trace Brayton is a freshman pitcher on the Minnesota-Crookston baseball team. The 2019 Prentice graduate appeared in one game for the Golden Eagles (8-5), walking the only batter he faced in a 9-2 loss to Rockhurst University in a game played Feb. 27 in Winter Haven, Florida.