Make it 5 GNC titles in a row for Medford girls

GNC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPS

A curveball was thrown to Medford’s girls cross country team the evening before Saturday’s Great Northern Conference championships, but that wasn’t going to stop the Raiders from maintaining its dominance over its league rivals.

With top runner Meredith Richter as well as two JV contributors getting caught up in COVID contact tracing and unable to participate, the Raiders still made it five GNC titles in a row and did it in convincing fashion at Minocqua Winter Park, compiling just 32 team points and winning Saturday’s meet by a 29-point margin over Tomahawk. Host Lakeland was third with 68 points, Mosinee had 71 and Rhinelander had 122, while Northland Pines and Antigo did not field full teams.

“We really wanted to make sure we kept our streak alive,” said senior Jennifer Kahn, who had the best day of the eight competing Raiders with a second-place time of 20:51.1.

In the boys race, Medford’s Joe Sullivan also wasn’t about to give up his spot as the GNC’s top runner. The senior earned Runner of the Year honors for the second straight fall with a winning time of 16:42.9 that beat runner-up Owen Clark of Lakeland by 32.1 seconds.

“It’s pretty cool I guess,” Sullivan said. “I knew I had a pretty good shot going in. It’s exciting. It’s a good course. It was an OK time. I was pretty happy about it.”

The successful day gives Medford some solid momentum heading into the WIAA Division 2 Colby-Abbotsford sectional, where state berths will be determined. The sixth-ranked girls team is a solid bet to advance to state for the third time in four years and make up for last year’s disappointment where a late move to Division 1 took away what would have been a sure advancement in Division 2.

Sullivan is aiming for his third straight state berth, sophomore Tanner Hraby is an individual contender and the boys will see if they can challenge for one of the top two team spots. The boys run first at 11 a.m. on the course at Colby High School, while the girls will follow at 11:45 a.m.

Title number five

The Raiders felt comfortable they’d be fine Saturday without Richter, but they also went in with the attitude that they had to go in and take the title.

“I think not having Meredith just motivated us all to do better and make it up and just make sure we still get our conference championship,” senior Alexis Fleegel said. She joined Kahn and junior Brooke Rudolph on the All-GNC first team with a sixth-place time of 21:11.2. Rudolph was right behind her at 21:16.2.

Junior Bryn Fronk, typically one of Medford’s top two finishers came in ninth overall at 21:23.3 to lock down her spot on the All-GNC second team. Sophomore Ella Daniels took advantage of her chance to be Medford’s fifth scorer, clinching a second-team All-GNC spot with her 13th-place time of 22:02.3 and freshman Ella Daniels got honorable mention in her first GNC race with a 17th-place time of 22:12.1.

“It was so much of a team effort,” Kahn said. “There was a good portion where we were all almost running together. It was just like we were pushing each other and helping each other get up there.”

“The ladies were projected to win going into the day but they don’t hand you a trophy when you get off the bus,” head coach Kevin Wellman said. Wellman and Sherry Meyer were named the GNC’s girls Coaches of the Year. “The ladies team was also missing three members and it was interesting to see who was going to step up and fill the needs of the team. The ladies ran an astounding race with six runners in the top 20 spots by the halfway point.”

With Joselyn Torres and Kylie Potvin also not available, sophomores Natasha Butt and Lydia Way were able to fill varsity spots and took 40th and 41st in the 45-runner event with times of 27:21.5 and 28:35.9, respectively.

Nora Gremban of Northland Pines, who was robbed of a GNC title as a freshman when she got nabbed by contact tracing the day of last year’s meet, was not going to be denied this year and won the race in 18:49.1. Lakeland’s Grace Kern (20:53.6), Tomahawk’s Rachael Reilly (21:03.1) and Mosinee’s Britt Fitzgerald (21:08.5) also earned first-team All-GNC spots by finishing third through fifth.

Fleegel and Kahn are the lone seniors on the girls squad and have known nothing but first place in GNC meets. It’s a position they don’t take for granted.

“We’re so close together,” Fleegel said. “Every race is different as to who is second, third or fourth on the team.”

“I’ve been sixth on the team, second on the team. It’s all over the place,” Kahn said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

“That’s what makes it so fun and motivating to us,” Fleegel said.

You can bet the team is as motivated as ever now as, after nine first-place finishes in the regular season, the Raiders can now finally focus on their post-season aspirations.

“We’re really looking forward to doing well at sectionals and making it to state and having a fun time,” Fleegel said.

“I think some people are talking about doing extremely well at state, shooting for second or somewhere in there. It’s kind of the hope,” Kahn said. “But honestly, usually the main goal is just to make it to state and just do as well as you can there. Everyone looks for PRs and stuff when you’re there.”

A solid second

The boys hoped to make a run at favored Rhinelander and came up a little short, but they weren’t terribly disappointed because the results they put up were strong.

While Sullivan won handily, Tanner Hraby earned All-GNC first-team honors with a fifth-place time of 17:48.6 and sophomore Logan Gubser made the second team with an 11th-place time of 18:45. Junior Josh Clark set a personal- best time of 19:24 while taking 21st and getting the last honorable mention spot and first-year senior Stephen Hraby was the fifth scorer, taking 29th in 20:22.3, one spot ahead of teammate Nick Steliga (20:27.2). Lucas Borman smashed his previous record and finished in 22:01.5 to finish 42nd out of 49 runners.

“Every single one of the guys improved on their times from when we raced this course earlier in the season,” Wellman said. “The biggest gainers were Lucas Borman cutting off 2:25, Logan Gubser shaved off 1:28 and Josh Clark 1:19. Stephen Hraby and Nick Steliga cut off 29 and 24 seconds. The guys team did a tremendous job and each pushed themselves to great times.”

“We definitely wanted to get Rhinelander for that first spot,” Sullivan said. “We beat them in our first meet of the year, but they’ve gotten a lot better. So have we. They have some good runners in a big group up at the top. But I think we’re happy with second. We haven’t run against Tomahawk, so we didn’t know much about them, but we knew they were coming for us and we held them off, which was nice.”

Rhinelander finished with a 49-67 scoring edge over Medford. Tomahawk scored 82 points, followed by Lakeland (97), Northland Pines (107), Antigo (129) and Mosinee (157).

Rhinelander’s Cal Laggis was third individually in 17:23.9 and Lakeland freshman Ashton Bremer was fourth in 17:32.9. Mosinee’s Cooper Szekeress (18:02.9) and Sam Gremban of Northland Pines (18:12.2) rounded out the first team.

While Sullivan was basically unchallenged in this race, he knows he’ll be pushed this Saturday by contenders like Eli Boppart of Mauston and Jose Monroy of Arcadia who have also been posting times in the 16:30 range.

“If I’m going to beat them, I know my time is going to have to be good,” Sullivan said. “It’s going to be a race.”

Medford’s Alexis Fleegel (61), Bryn Fronk (62) and Brooke Rudolph (65) try to chase down runners from Lakeland and Tomahawk during Saturday’s GNC race at Minocqua Winter Park. Fleegel and Rudolph finished sixth and seventh. Fronk was ninth.BOB MAINHARDT/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS

Joe Sullivan

Tanner Hraby

Ella Daniels

Ella Dassow

Logan Gubser

Josh Clark