made 70.5% of his free ….
made 70.5% of his free throws (55 of 78). He averaged 5.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocked shots per game. In 15 conference games, his numbers went up to 16.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocked shots per game.
He scored a season-high 25 points while making nine of 16 shots, including three of seven 3s and four of five free throws in an 86-74 loss at Manhattan Christian College on Jan. 22. He scored 23 points, including five-of-nine shooting on 3s, and had five rebounds and four assists in a 90-76 loss to Faith Baptist Bible College on Jan. 12.
Petkau scored 22 points in a 92-86 loss at Calvary University on Feb. 6 and poured in 22 points again on Feb. 20 in a 73-68 loss to Ozark Christian College. He had a season-high 13 rebounds to go with 21 points and four assists in an 87-71 home loss to Manhattan Christian College on Jan. 8. His season-high of seven assists came in 95-68 loss to Barclay College on Jan. 9.
He played for all 40 minutes in 15 of the Eagles’ games, including the last 12 as the team finished the year with just six available players.
Emmaus went 1-2 while hosting the MCCC tournament Feb. 18-20. The win was a 90-81 victory over Calvary, a team it had lost twice to during the regular season. Petkau hit four of five shots and five of six free throws to score 13 points in that game.
On Feb. 25, the seventh-seeded Eagles won their NCCAA Division II regional opener at Ankeny, Iowa, upsetting host and second-seeded Faith Baptist Bible College (14-13) by a score of 85-73. Petkau had 15 points, five steals and three rebounds in the win. The season ended the next night with a 75-74 loss to sixthseeded Calvary, who wound up upsetting its way to the regional tournament championship and a spot in the national tournament. Petkau had 10 points and five rebounds in that game.
2020 Rib Lake graduate Levi Ewan appeared in two games for the UW-Stevens Point men’s basketball team, which went 2-7 in its shortened season.
The 5-11 guard made his debut on Feb. 19 in an 86-66 loss at 13th-ranked UWOshkosh. In three minutes, he had an assist and got off a 3-point attempt.
In a 98-65 blowout win over visiting UW-River Falls on Feb. 24, Ewan played two minutes and had another assist.
The Pointers’ other win was their season opener, a 70-68 win at UW-Whitewater.
The Pointers went 2-6 in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play, splitting home-and-away series with River Falls and Whitewater and getting swept by Platteville and Oshkosh. They lost their first game in the WIAC tournament game at UW-La Crosse 76-68 on March 1.
On the track
After missing the 2020 season due to illness, 2017 Medford graduate Jake Sullivan was back with the UW-La Crosse men’s track and field team during its abbreviated indoor season. He was joined by his brother, 2020 Medford graduate Justin Sullivan.
Both of the Sullivan brothers filled a 400-meter role with the team during the winter and Jake Sullivan was back on the 1,600-meter relay team, which he was part of in 2019 when La Crosse’s team won NCAA national indoor and outdoor awards in the event.
He joined Addison Hill and Caden Pearce of Marshfield and Seth Holden of Holmen to win the relay in a season-best time of 3:20.72 at the March 6 WIAC Last Chance meet hosted by UW-Whitewater. The Eagles beat UW-Oshkosh by 3.09 seconds. Justin Kotarak of Muskego, Hill, Pearce and Sullivan posted a secondplace time of 3:23.26 in a dual at UW-Oshkosh on Feb. 6. The Titans’ top team won in 3:19.63. In a dual at UW-Stevens Point Feb. 25, Pearce, Sullivan, Hill and Payton Flood of River Falls won the race in 3:25.22, beating the Pointers’ top team by 1.22 seconds.
Jake Sullivan won the 400-meter dash in the Oshkosh dual in a time of 49.99 seconds; took second at 49.91 seconds at Point, 0.2 seconds behind Pearce, and was second in 49.8 seconds at Whitewater, 0.04 seconds behind Pearce.
Justin Sullivan was sixth in the 400-meter dash at Point with a time of 53.35 seconds and sixth in a dual at UWStout Feb. 20 with a time of 56.15 seconds. He joined Hill, Jace Serres of Platteville and Flood to take second in the 1,600-meter relay in that meet with a time of 3:32.09. The Eagles were 1.19 seconds behind Stout’s winning team.
Victor Rinaldi, a 2018 Medford graduate, appeared in one indoor meet for UW-Whitewater, placing second in the men’s 60-meter dash during a Feb. 6 dual with visiting UW-Platteville. Rinaldi posted a preliminary time of 7.07 seconds and lowered that to 7.03 seconds in the final. Teammate Dwayne Ford won in 6.97 seconds, 0.03 seconds faster than his preliminary time.
Osy Ekwueme, a 2017 Medford graduate, appeared in two events for the Notre Dame men’s track and field team at the Lenny Lyles Cardinal Invitational, hosted by Louisville on Feb. 17. He was sixth in the 400-meter dash at 53.06 seconds and was part of a 1,600-meter relay team that took second out of six squads with a time of 3:22.61, 4.49 seconds behind Louisville’s top team and 2.14 seconds ahead of its B relay. Notre Dame tied Eastern Kentucky for second in the four-team meet with 96 points. Louisville won with 159.
Notre Dame finished sixth in the Feb. 25-27 Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Championships, hosted by Clemson.
Franny Seidel, a 2020 Medford graduate, made her collegiate debut for Minnesota-Duluth’s women’s track team on Feb. 19 while competing in the 3,000-meter run. She finished fourth out of seven runners in the race with a time of 11:22.11. Six of the competitors were from Duluth and they took the top six spots, led by Julia Nielsen (10:50.96). Duluth (40 points) was third in the triangular hosted by Bemidji State (109) and won by St. Cloud State (124).
In the pool
Freshman Faith Piller, a 2020 Medford graduate, spent the abbreviated season as a diver for the UW-Stevens Point women’s swim team.
She appeared in four meets for the Pointers, 1-meter diving in all four and 3-meter diving in three.
Her best score in 1-meter competition was 137.2 points, which put her fourth among five Pointers in a Feb. 27 meet against UW-La Crosse. In that same meet, she hit her high in 3-meter diving with 152.05 points, also good for fourth place. In a home meet against UW-Whitewater on Feb. 13, Piller was again fourth in both events, scoring 135.6 points in
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1-meter diving and 138.1 points in 3-meter diving.
On the diamond
In baseball, 2020 Medford graduate
John McMurry has appeared in six games for the Viterbo University VHawks through the team’s first 23 games this spring. The V-Hawks were 9-14 through Tuesday.
In five pitching appearances, McMurry has a 9.35 earned run average in 8.2 innings pitched with five strikeouts and three walks. He’s allowed 11 runs, nine of which were earned. He has struck out in both of his at-bats, which came in a 25-2 win over Presentation College on March 29. The V-Hawks scored 13 first-inning runs in that win, which was game two of a doubleheader.
McMurry made his debut in the team’s second game, a 10-0 loss at Oklahoma City University on Feb. 27. He pitched the fifth and sixth innings on the seveninning game and allowed three hits and three runs, two of which were earned. He struck out one and walked one. A tworun double did the damage against him in the fifth, but he avoided further damage by inducing an inning-ending double play. He worked a 1-2-3 sixth.
McMurry pitched a scoreless last two innings in a 6-1 win at St. Francis, Ill. on March 6. He struck out one and allowed nothing, retiring all six batters he faced. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a 10-1 home win over Lakeland College on March 14, walking one.
He got touched for three runs, two of which were earned and two hits in an 1110 win over Presentation in game one on March 29. He struck out one and walked one. He allowed five earned runs and five hits, including a homer, in 2.2 innings during a 17-9 loss at Waldorf Tuesday.
Viterbo’s regular season extends through April and into early May. The NAIA team plays in the North Star Athletic Association, where it is currently 4-6.
Former Rib Lake-Prentice football player Trace Brayton is a pitcher on the University of Minnesota-Crookston’s baseball roster. The Golden Eagles are off to their best start in school history at 13-1 overall and 9-1 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. They were ranked 25th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division II poll released Wednesday, March 25. The Golden Eagles were also ranked 26th in the Collegiate Baseball Division II poll. The rankings are the first for the Crookston baseball program.
Brayton, a 2019 Prentice graduate, has appeared in one game so far, throwing a scoreless inning with one walk allowed in a 15-3 win at the University of Sioux Falls on March 25.
