Getting some work in at the Dells

HEATHER JOHNSON INVITATIONAL

While serving as Medford’s annual chance to get out of town and have some team fun, the Heather Johnson Memorial Invitational at Wisconsin Dells also gives the Raiders’ track and field athletes chances to test themselves against competitors they don’t typically see.

In Friday’s final pre-conference tuneup, the Raiders set several more best times while placing sixth out of nine teams in the girls meet and seventh in the boys meet.

The only win of the night came from the girls, who won the 400-meter relay with the combination of Marlee Perrin, Sophie Brost, Brenley Beran and Jaylin Machon. They were declared the winners over DeForest, with both teams being clocked in 52.4 seconds. Sauk Prairie was third in 52.61 seconds. That was Medford’s fastest time of the season in that relay.

The Raiders had nine more top-five finishes while compiling 64 points to outscore Adams-Friendship (50), Mauston (43) and Marshall (12) in the team standings. Marshfield won the girls meet with 148 points, followed by Sauk Prairie (115), DeForest (112.5), Wisconsin Dells (68) and Ripon (65.5).

Machon had a solid individually, placing second in the pole vault at 8 feet, 6 inches, 6 inches behind Marshfield’s Sophie Nikolay, and third in the 100-meter high hurdles at a personal-best 17.43 seconds. She trailed Anna Szepieniec of DeForest (15.25) and Brie Eckerman of Mauston (15.66).

Meredith Richter took second in the 400-meter dash at 1:02.15 with Hailey Anchor of Wisconsin Dells being the only one faster at 1:00. Raider Ashley Hernandez was 12th at 1:20.95. Perrin cleared 4-10 to place fourth in the high jump, 4 inches below winner Emma Ridgway of Marshfi eld. She was fifth in the 200-meter dash preliminaries in a season-best 28.27 seconds, but she did not run in the final. Ella Daniels placed fifth in the 1,600-meter run at 6:19.33 and Ella Dassow took fifth in the 3,200-meter race at 14:13.69.

Brost had a solid meet, led by a fifthplace time of 13.75 seconds in the 100-meter dash final. She moved up from a seventh-place standing after the prelims (13.89). Brost was 11th in the triple jump at 28-9.5, a half-inch ahead of teammate Lindsey Klapatauskas, who set a personal best at 28-9.

Brooke Rudolph got three points with a sixth-place finish in the 300-meter low hurdles at 56.31 seconds and she got two more with a seventh-place finish in the long jump at 14-0.5. Beran was ninth at 13-7.5, while Raiders Stacy Stolp and Hannah Fleegel tied for 11th at 12-8.

Daniels, Naomi Fleegel, Dassow and Rudolph started the meet with a fourthplace finish in the 3,200-meter relay with their best time of the spring at 11:17.78. Sauk Prairie won in 10:52.36. Beran, Stolp, Alyssa Brandner and Brost took fourth in the 800-meter relay at 1:57.36. Marshfield won the race in 1:51.66.

Naomi Fleegel had a season-best time of 2:53.54 in the 800-meter run, good for 13th place. Makayla Motte improved her discus distance to 64 feet, good for 16th place. Klapatauskas was 13th in the shot put (26-6) and 15th in the 100-meter dash (14.48). Riley Clark was 13th in the 200 at 31.15 seconds.

The boys got most of their points from relays as well as three individual placements from Joe Sullivan.

Medford scored 55 points to beat Marshall (42.5) and Adams-Friendship (1). Marshfield completed a sweep of the team titles with 139.5 points, followed by Ripon (106), DeForest (104), Sauk Prairie (89.5), Mauston (88) and Wisconsin Dells (72.5).

Sullivan took second in the 1,600-meter run at 4:40.04, trailing his cross country rival from the fall, Eli Boppart of Mauston (4:29.7). Silas Wipf was ninth for Medford in a personal-best 5:01.09. Sullivan later took second in the 800-meter run at 2:03.79, just behind Marshfield’s Graham Lonsdale (2:01.05). Josh Clark got the eighth-place point for Medford in a personal-best 2:14.56 and Anthony Seidel was 17th in 2:32.59. Sullivan tacked on a fourth-place distance of 38-6.5 in the triple jump, while teammates Vincent Seidel (32-0) and Paxton Rothmeier (29-11.5) were 10th and 12th. Marshfield’s James Ketterer won at 41-4.5.

Two Raider relays took third. The first team to do that was the 3,200-meter squad of Zach Rudolph, Vincent Seidel, Clark and Wipf in a time of 8:47.31. Mauston (8:35.65) and Sauk Prairie (8:44.54) were the only teams faster. Itsael Medina, Cory Lindahl, Jose Herrera and Anakin Stokes did it in the 800-meter race at a season-best 1:38.45, not far behind DeForest (1:35.49) and Marshfield (1:36.54).

Sullivan, Rudolph, Lindahl and Gage Losiewicz took fourth in the 1,600-meter relay in 3:45.65. Marshfield won in 3:42. Medina, Evan Paul, Herrera and Stokes were sixth in the 400-meter relay at 48.22 seconds. DeForest was the winner in 44.12 seconds.

Stokes got five fourth-place points in the 200-meter dash final with his personal- best time of 23.94 seconds, 0.59 seconds behind winner Luke LeMoine of Marshfi eld. Herrera (24.94) and Isaac Kautzer (26.29) also improved by taking 13th and 17th in the prelims. Kautzer made the 100-meter dash final with a fifth-place preliminary time of 11.89 seconds. He was ninth in the final at 12.73 seconds. Herrera added an eighth-place point in the long jump at 17-6.5, Paul was ninth at 17-0.5 and Lindahl was 14th at 16-3. Paul hit 5-8 to place fourth in the high jump, 5 inches below winner Michael Blau of Sauk Prairie.

Jake Seifert placed seventh in the discus with a throw of 116-6 and 11th in the shot put at 39-2.5. Logan Kawa was 14th in the discus (96-11) and 17th in the shot put (35-0.5). Will Haavisto was 18th in the shot put (29-9) and Jude Stark was 19th at a personal-best 84-8 in the discus.

Losiewicz got to 10 feet in the pole vault to place ninth, while Adam Kowalski was 11th at 8-6. Losiewicz also placed ninth in the 400-meter dash at 59.19 seconds, while Lucas Borman (1:01.34) and Gatlin Piller (1:02.49) set their best times while placing 11th and 13th.

Brayden Balciar stretches to get to this shot during his match with Altoona’s Ryan Hays Thursday. He won the match, but Medford lost the meet 5-2.BRIAN WILSON/THE STAR NEWS