Retterath earns WIAC mention; athletes excel in CC, swimming
COLLEGE ATHLETES FALL REPORT
After coming to a virtual standstill in 2020, fall athletics returned to college campuses this school year and several local athletes achieved success in their chosen sports.
Nick Retterath, a 2019 Medford graduate, earned All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) honorable mention after starting all 10 games on the offensive line for the UW-Stevens Point football team. He was one of just a few linemen to play in every game for the Pointers.
Retterath, a junior, became the team’s starting center. The line helped open the holes and provided pass protection for an offense that averaged 120.1 rushing yards and 180.3 passing yards per game.
Retterath was one of four Pointers to earn All-WIAC awards.
The Pointers won their first two nonconference games, 31-14 at Mayville State (N.D.) and 34-7 at Simpson College (Iowa) before enduring an eight-game losing streak to finish 2-8 overall and 0-7 in the WIAC. The team played UW-Stout twice to fill its 10-game schedule.
The team rushed for a season-high 311 yards in the win at Simpson and had 527 total yards in that game and had 411 total yards in the win at Mayville State.
Ean Wilson, a 2020 Medford graduate, was a freshman linebacker on the roster for the UW-Oshkosh Titans, who went 6-3 overall and 4-3 in the WIAC. They got off to a 3-0 start with non-conference wins at Huntingdon College (Ala.) and Northern Michigan and a 35-32 league win at UWPlatteville. But back-to-back losses at UW-La Crosse (30-21) and UW-Whitewater (32-13) on Oct. 9 and 16 knocked the Titans out of title contention early.
Titans’ head coach Pat Cerroni announced his retirement on Nov. 29 after 15 seasons in the position. His term included five NCAA Division III postseason berths and four WIAC titles. The Titans reached the NCAA Division III championship game in 2016.
Alicia Kawa, a 2021 Medford graduate, had a successful first fall with Wisconsin- Green Bay’s women’s cross country team, consistently finishing among the squad’s top five runners in its six races.
Kawa capped the season as the team’s third runner at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, hosted by the University of Evansville on Nov. 12 at the 6K Angel Mounds course in Evansville, Ind. In a field of 295 runners, Kawa placed 184th in a season-best 23:39.7. The only teammates faster were senior Alexia Oyer, who was 165th in 22:56.6 and freshman Kelsey Radobicky, who was 173rd in 23:10.6. Four of the Phoenix’s seven entrants in the race were freshmen. UWGreen Bay placed 28th out of 31 scoring teams with 891 points. Notre Dame won the regional with just 56 points, edging Wisconsin by 13.
Green Bay placed eighth in the Horizon League Championships hosted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) at Northview Church Course in Carmel, Ind. on Oct. 30. The team finished with 205 points to beat Purdue-Fort Wayne by 15. Wisconsin- Milwaukee won the league title with 47 points, 17 fewer than Oakland.
In that race, Kawa was Green Bay’s fourth finisher and placed 59th out of 103 runners in 25:10. Abigail Halsey of Wright State won the individual title in 22:10.6.
In her first 6K race, Kawa was 23rd out of 155 finishers in the Tom Hoffman Invitational hosted by UW-Whitewater on Sept. 18. Her time was 24:17.8 which put her third on the team behind Oyer (23:33.8) and Radobicky (23:39.2). The team placed third behind Washington University (15) and UW-Stevens Point (71) with 76 points. Kawa was 225th out of 286 runners at Bradley’s “Pink” Classic in Peoria, Ill. on Oct. 15 with a solid time of 23:46.1. The Phoenix finished 33rd out of 37 scoring teams in that meet.
In the Phoenix’s two 5K races, Kawa was 32nd out of 44 runners in the seasonopening, four-team Winrow Valparaiso Open on Sept. 3 with a time of 19:59 and she was 95th out of 164 finishers in the Joe Piane Invitational hosted by Notre Dame on Oct. 1 with an even better time of 19:30. Green Bay was eighth out of 13 teams in the Open Division with 228 points. North Carolina State won with 22 points.
Serena Moore, a 2021 Prentice graduate and four-year standout with Prentice-Rib Lake’s cross country team, also was a freshman member of Green Bay’s squad and competed in the Winrow Valparaiso Open. She was 44th in 22:39.2. The Phoenix scored 91 points to beat Valparaiso (103) and trail Purdue (19) and Notre Dame (41) that day.
Franny Seidel, a 2020 Medford graduate, completed a solid first full season with the Minnesota-Duluth women’s cross country team with a 55th-place finish out of 142 runners in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s championship meet held Oct. 23 at Wayne State College in Nebraska.
In that meet, Seidel set a season-best time for 6K races at 24:14.8. She was the team’s eighth finisher in the meet. Savannah Schley, a freshman from Loyal, was the team’s 10th runner, taking 70th in 24:46.1. The Bulldogs finished third out of 16 conference teams with 86 points, trailing Augustana of South Dakota (20) and U-Mary of North Dakota (84). The team went on to place second at the NCAA Division II Central Regions race in Joplin, Mo. and 26th in the Division II national championships held in St. Leo, Fla. on Nov. 20. It was UMD’s first national appearance since 2017. The team got as high as 18th in the national rankings.
In earlier 6K races, Seidel posted a time of 24:50.3, which was good for 139th place at the Lewis Crossover in Romeoville, Ill., which featured more than 25 teams and 11 nationally-ranked teams. UMD finished fourth with 154 points, while topranked Grand Valley State won it with 36. She finished in 24:57 in the Maroon Division of the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota on Sept. 24. That was good for 123rd out of 327 runners. UMD took second out of 29 team with 69 points, just five behind U-Mary.
Seidel started the year with a 14thplace time of 18:52.6 in the 3-mile Twin Cities Twilight race on Sept. 3. The Bulldogs won that five-team meet with just 25 points. The Bulldogs easily won the fiveteam 5K Dan Conway Classic in Superior on Sept. 9. Seidel was 14th out of 43 runners in 20:17.5.
Erin Bergman, a 2021 Medford graduate, has filled a variety of roles so far in her freshman season with the St. Cloud State University women’s swim team, which has been busy in the first two months of the current fall/winter 2021-22 season.
Bergman had her best meet so far this past weekend at the three-day Rochester Invitational. She set a season-best time of 59.69 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke, which was good for 13th place in the finals and smashed her previous season-best time with a 2:10.89 in the 200-yard backstroke, which put her in 10th place in the finals. She set another season-best time of 2:17.17 in the preliminaries of the 200yard individual medley. She was 24th in the finals at 2:18.57. Bergman finished 12th in the 100-yard individual medley at 1:02.88, just off her preliminary time of 1:02.59.
The Huskies finished second in the meet with 583.9 points, just behind Nebraska- Omaha (585.3). Bergman also had her fastest leg of the season in the 200-yard medley relay at 28.05 seconds. Her team was 10th in 1:49.3. Her 200-yard freestyle relay team had its fastest time so far at 1:43.16, good for 23rd place.
In a 159.5-79.5 win at UW-Eau Claire on Nov. 19, Bergman led off for the winning 200-yard medley relay team, which posted a time of 1:50.69, 0.39 seconds faster than St. Cloud’s runner-up team. She also took fourth in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:05.46 and sixth in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:28.38.
Before this past weekend, her best 100-yard backstroke time was 1:04.03, set at the St. Thomas Jo Ann Andregg Invite Nov. 12-13. Her best 200-yard backstroke time had been 2:20.07, which was good for fifth at the Oct. 30 Cows, Colleges and Contentment Classic hosted by St. Olaf.
She also has been part of 400-yard backstroke and 400-yard medley relay teams for the Huskies, who will next host St. Johns and St. Benedictine on Jan. 13.
Morgan Ball, a 2021 Medford graduate, is off to a solid start in her freshman season with the Minnesota-Morris women’s swim team, which is 1-2 in dual meets to start the season.
In a 159-64 loss to the University of Jamestown Nov. 5, Ball was second in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:09.59, 1.57 seconds behind Jamestown’s Courtnay Kiecker, fifth in the 50-yard freestyle at 27.95 seconds and second on the 200yard medley relay team that finished in 1:59.91, just 0.11 seconds behind Jamestown’s winning team.
The next day in a double-dual with Concordia College (Minn.) and Southwest Minnesota State University, Ball was fourth overall in the 200-yard backstroke (2:34.62), sixth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:40.29) and part of the second-place 200-yard medley relay team (2:01.19) that was 1.38 seconds behind Southwest’s winning team. The Cougars beat Concordia 121-82 and lost to Southwest 193-38 in the meet.
The Cougars were 13th out of 13 teams at the three-day Augustana University Invitational Nov. 18-20 and Ball was busy in that meet. Individually, she was 96th in the 50-yard freestyle (28.2), 68th in the 100-yard butterfly (1:09.61), 79th in the 100-yard backstroke (1:09.13), 73rd in the 100-yard individual medley (1:10.99) and tied for 47th in the 200-yard backstroke (2:30.38).
She was on several relay teams as well. Her 4x50 medley team was 35th (2:02.8), the 800-yard freestyle team was 26th (9:03.08), the 4x50 freestyle team was 36th (1:53.22), the 400-yard medley team was 31st (4:31.78) and the 400-yard freestyle team was 37th (4:09.76).
The team next competes at the Minneosta- Moorhead Dragon Invite Jan. 14-
15.
Faith Piller, a 2020 Medford graduate, is a diver for the UW-Stevens Point women’s swim team. Piller has had the opportunity to compete in one meet so far. In a dual with UW-Whitewater on Nov. 20, Piller placed seventh out of eight entrants in 1-meter diving with 136.45 points and she was seventh out of eight entrants in 3-meter diving with 136.65 points. The Pointers won the meet 179-61.
The Pointers are 2-2 overall in duals so far and took first out of six teams at the Wheaton Invite Dec. 3-4. They next host UW-Oshkosh Jan. 14 and Northern Michigan on Jan. 15. Early winter
In other winter sports updates: Raejana Wright, a 2019 Rib Lake High School graduate, is averaging 3.9 points and 2.8 rebounds in just over 12 minutes per game for the Barton College women’s basketball team. Those numbers are highlighted by an 11-point, five-rebound outing in the team’s seasonopening 81-49 win over Georgia College on Nov. 12. She played 20 minutes in that game and added three steals.
The Bulldogs are off to a 6-1 start, starting with six straight wins, before their two-year 19-game home winning streak ended Saturday with a 78-74 loss to their Conference Carolinas nemesis Belmont Abbey.
Steven Petkau, a 2020 Rib Lake graduate, is averaging 16.9 points per game through eight contests for the men’s basketball team at Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa. He’s averaging 35.3 minutes per game, shooting at a strong 47.2% clip from the field (48 of 102) and shooting 39.5% from 3-point range (17 of 43). He’s 22 of 25 from the free throw line. The 6-5 sophomore is averaging five rebounds per game and has 18 assists, 19 steals and seven blocked shots.
He scored 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field, including five of 10 from 3-point range, in a 79-60 win at Maranatha Baptist University on Nov. 20 and scored 21 points in the Eagles’ most recent game, a 102-63 win over Moody Bible Institute, on Saturday.
The Eagles are off to a 2-7 start.
Medford 2020 graduate Jake Rau was named this week’s Minnesota College Athletic Conference Wrestling Athlete of the Week honor. Rau, a heavyweight wrestler for Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids, Minn. was honored for his successful classroom and athletic performance. Rau recently visited the nation’s capital where he was offered athletic and academic scholarships to cover the majority of his college education at American University.
In the Nov. 6 Cobber Invitational at Moorhead, Minn., Rau wrestled two wrestlers from U-Mary in 285-pound matches. He was defeated 8-2 by Dominic Tudor and 7-5 by Gerardo Jaime. The Vikings were scheduled to compete Wednesday in Thief River Falls against Northland Community and Technical College in what is being called the Battle of the North: Volume 2. Northland won the the 2019 Volume 1 matchup.
AJ Adleman, a 2020 Medford graduate, holds an 8-0 record as a goalie for the 23-0 Helena Bighorns in North American 3 Hockey Tier III Junior League. In his eight starts, Adleman has allowed just 13 goals for a 1.68 goals-against-average and he has a .935 save percentage with 186 saves on 199 shots faced. He has one shutout, which came in a 10-0 win at Sheridan on Sept. 11. He had 18 saves in that game.
The Bighorns hold a 2.5-game lead over the second-place Gillette Wild (202) in the Frontier Division. The team’s regular season extends into early March.
Medford senior Lindsey Wildberg gets an open look at a 3-point shot from the left corner during the first half of Friday’s 63-51 loss to Lakeland at Raider Hall.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
