23 Raiders among GNC’s honorees

ALL-GNC TRACK & FIELD

Jaylin Machon’s repeat pole vault title, three second-place runs for Meredith Richter, a 110-meter high hurdles championship for Paxton Rothmeier and two relay wins for the the Raider boys highlighted Medford’s list of 23 athletes who earned 2023 All-Great Northern Conference track and field honors.

Raider seniors Josh Clark and Silas Wipf earned multiple awards and Machon and Rothmeier added more as well. With three boys relay teams and two girls teams getting top-three finishes, Medford’s list of award winners grew by six over last year. The awards are based on results from the 2023 conference meet, which was hosted May 16 by the Lakeland Thunderbirds.

Medford’s girls team finished second at that meet with 113.33 points, trailing three-time champion Mosinee (135.17). Medford’s boys team was second with 150 points, well behind host Lakeland (184) and just ahead of third-place Northland Pines (134.5).

Rothmeier, a sophomore, won the 110-meter high hurdles in 18.11 seconds and added an honorable mention award by placing third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at 45.47 seconds. He won the 110s by 0.16 seconds over Mosinee freshman Zander Deiniger.

Medford’s relay champions in the boys meet were the 800-meter team of Anakin Stokes, Cory Lindahl, Gage Losiewicz and Jose Herrera and the 3,200-meter team of Vincent Seidel, Zach Rudolph, Lucas Borman and Adyn Gripentrog. The 400-meter team of Herrera, Evan Paul, Itsael Medina Fuentes and Lindahl got second-team honors with its time of 46.87 seconds, 1.11 seconds behind Northland Pines.

Clark earned second-team spots in the 800-meter (2:05.15) and 1,600-meter (4:41.97) runs while Wipf got honorable mention in the 400-meter dash (53.59) and 800-meter run (2:06.22). Losiewicz cleared 12 feet to earn a second-team spot on pole vault and Paul went 39 feet, 9 inches to get honorable mention in the triple jump.

Lakeland junior Owen Clark was named GNC Runner of the Year after sweeping the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter titles. Northland Pines senior Ryan Muench was named the GNC Field Athlete of the Year after winning the long and triple jumps. Lakeland’s Stephanie Strasburg was named GNC Boys Coach of the Year.

Girls awards

Machon improved by 6 inches over last year’s meet and easily won the GNC’s girls pole vault competition by clearing 10 feet. She was 2 feet above runner-up Alicia Voermans of Tomahawk.

The Raiders claimed six second-team spots. Richter got three of them by finishing behind Northland Pines standout Nora Gremban in the 800-meter (2:30.5) and 1,600-meter (5:40.53) runs and behind Lakeland senior Grace Kern in the 400-meter dash in 59.88 seconds.

Richter went on to win the WIAA Division 2 state championship in the 800-meter run and placed 10th at state in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. She now holds the school record in the 400-, 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.

Junior Lindsey Klapatauskas got off a jump of 32 feet even to earn the second- team spot in triple jump. Medford’s 400-meter relay team of Klapatauskas, Alexis Zuleger, Stacy Stolp and Machon as well as the 1,600-meter team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Lillie Gleichauf, Riley Clark and Autumn Cooley took second in their races. The 400 team finished in 55.25 seconds, 1.86 seconds behind Tomahawk, and the 1,600 team finished in 4:41.26 in a race won by Rhinelander in 4:24.36.

Machon got honorable mention by placing third in the 100-meter high hurdles at 17.62 seconds and freshman Lindsay Kahn took third in the 3,200-meter run with her time of 12:45.98.

Antigo sprinter MacKenzie Wissbroecker got the GNC Runner of the Year award after winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She also won the GNC and WIAA Division 2 state long jump championships. Kirkland Williams of Northland Pines was named the GNC Field Athlete of the Year award after winning the triple jump (33-7.25) and taking third in the long jump (15-6.5). Mosinee’s Kevin Sanchez was named the GNC Girls Coach of the Year.

Anakin Stokes

Paxton Rothmeier

Silas Wipf

Zach Rudolph

Jose Herrera

Jaylin Machon

Evan Paul

Lucas Borman

Cory Lindahl

Meredith Richter

Itsael Medina

Adyn Gripentrog

Gage Losiewicz

Josh Clark

Lindsay Kahn

Lindsey Klapatauskas Alexis Zuleger Stacy Stolp Aliyah Pilgrim Lillie Gleichauf Riley Clark Autumn Cooley