MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD - Raiders’ top athletes make an impact at Northern Badger meet

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

Medford’s top track and field athletes got on the scoreboard with some strong performances at Friday’s Northern Badger Large Schools Classic hosted by UW-Stout.

Defending WIAA Division 2 800-meter state champion Meredith Richter won that event in her first race of the spring as the girls scored 26.5 team points in the meet. Gage Losiewicz, a state qualifier last spring in the boys pole vault, got 2 feet higher than he did three days earlier in Marshfield and placed second to help the boys score 25 points.

The girls finished ninth out of 20 scoring schools, while the boys tied for eighth.

Richter’s winning time in the 800-meter race was 2:21.98. She was 1.45 seconds ahead of Bloomer freshman Ciara Hartman, who was the only runner to challenge the Raider senior. Another Medford senior, Ella Daniels, was 13th in that race in 2:45.2.

The team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Toryn Rau, Morgan Liske and Richter added four points by taking fifth out of 17 teams in the 1,600-meter relay. Their time was 4:32.65. Osceola won in 4:22.57, followed by Tomah (4:26.43), Menomonie (4:27.29) and Bloomer (4:30.67).

Senior Jaylin Machon placed in two individual events for Medford. She cleared 9 feet, 6 inches to place fourth in the pole vault competition, while freshman teammate Avery Losiewicz tied Grace Gugel of Chippewa Falls for seventh at 8 feet. The only vaulters to go higher than Machon were Fall Creek’s Alena Sanfelippo, who set a meet record at 11 feet, Ella Dick of North Branch, Minn. (10-6) and Michelle Marquard of Wisconsin Dells (10 feet).

Machon got the eighth and last spot in the 55-meter hurdles final thanks to her preliminary time of 9.83 seconds. In the final, she was timed at 9.88 seconds, still good for eighth in a race won by Osceola’s Elletta Uddin in 8.55 seconds.

Losiewicz took fifth in the 400-meter dash, posting a solid time of 1:06.49. She was 0.11 seconds out of fourth place. Another strong Bloomer freshman, Briella Hartman, won in 1:03.43. Rau took 19th for Medford in 1:12.33.

Lindsay Kahn also got a point for the Raiders with her eighth-place time of 13:27.53 in the 3,200-meter run. Teammate Ella Dassow was 11th in 14:22.21.

Raider Felicity Ziehlke was 13th in the 1,600-meter run at 6:28.77, while Liske was 17th at 6:40.76. Rachel Wesle and Rivalee Stokes were 14th and 15th in the shot put with throws of 28-9.5 and 28-6.5 respectively. Lindsey Klapatauskas was 15th in the triple jump at 28-9, while Daniels was 18th (13-2.5) and Brenley Beran was 29th (11-8) in the long jump.

Pilgrim placed 23rd in the 200-meter dash at 29.39 seconds, Beran (31.3) was 39th and Alexis Zuleger (31.68) was 42nd. Stokes took 27th in the 55-meter dash at 8.234 seconds and Klapatauskas was 36th at 8.52 seconds. Addison Juedes cleared 4 feet to tie for 25th in the high jump.

Osceola won the girls meet by a sevenpoint margin, 59.5-52.5 over Bloomer. Rice Lake was third with 42.5 points. Medford will run into all three teams in post-season competition at the end of the spring. Menomonie (39), North Branch (38), Rochester Mayo, Minn. (37), Hudson (37) and Fall Creek (35) were also ahead of the Raiders.

In the boys meet, Gage Losiewicz got back up toward where he ended last spring by clearing 13 feet in the pole vault competition. He had the tiebreaker edge to place second over Rochester Mayo’s Lucas Peterson. Hayden Bergman of Hudson won with a monster vault of 15 feet. Raider Adam Kowalski tied for 15th at 9-6.

Senior newcomer Logan Gubser made an impact again in just his second high school meet. He took third in the 400-meter dash with his time of 54.61 seconds, one-tenth of a second ahead of D.C. Everest’s Jaiden Easter. Addison Uddin of Osceola won in 51.79 seconds, 0.67 seconds ahead of his teammate Cooper Hennemann. Raider Caleb Scoles was 17th in 58.33 seconds.

Gubser added two more points with a leap of 19-4.5 in the long jump, good for seventh place. Teammate Evan Paul was in eighth place, an inch behind. Paul had a big meet himself, also placing fourth in the triple jump at 39-4.5 and sixth in the high jump at 5-10.

The three triple jumpers to finish ahead of Paul all went beyond 40 feet. North Branch’s Carson Weber won at 41-7.5, 4.5 inches ahead of Somerset’s Jack Krier and Owen Schiltz of Eastview, Minn. was third at 40-1. Boyceville’s Caden Wold won the long jump at 21-6.5 and Conrad Webb of Somerset cleared 6-2 to win the high jump.

Gubser, Hayden Koester, Scoles and Isaac Kautzer just missed scoring in the 1,600-meter relay. They were 10th in 3:49.7, 1.64 seconds behind eighth-place Tomah and 0.46 seconds behind Wausau East. Osceola won in 3:37.07. Adyn Gripentrog had a solid first race of the season in the 800-meter run, taking 11th at 2:12.39, just 1.21 seconds out of eighth place and a team point. Owen Stockwell came in 16th for Medford at 2:15.35.

Brandon Curtis took 15th in the 3,200-meter run at 11:46.73 and Evan Pagel was 26th at 13:24.8. Anthony Seidel (5:32.93) and Peyton Ried (5:37.17) were 22nd and 23rd in the 1,600-meter run.

In the sprints, Kautzer (25.12) and Paxton Rothmeier (25.2) were 28th and 30th in the 200-meter dash while Jordan Lavin (28.17) was 65th. Kautzer added a 29th-place finish in the 55-meter dash at 7.059 seconds. Koester was 53rd (7.36) and Jason Scott was 73rd (7.88). Rothmeier took 26th in the 55-meter hurdles at 9.57 seconds and Will Daniels was 28th in 9.64 seconds.

Axel Brushaber finished 29th for Medford in the triple jump at 32-0.5 and William Bartnik was 32nd in the shot put at 31-7 while Logan Langdon was 38th at 29-7.

The Raiders tied Rice Lake for the eighth spot in the team standings. Rochester Mayo nudged past Eastview 67-63.5 to win the meet. Osceola (48), D.C. Everest (41), Stanley-Boyd (33), Somerset (28) and Menomonie (25.5) took spots three through seven.

Medford’s Brenley Beran accelerates out of the exchange area during the eightlap relay in Thursday’s Marshfield meet. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS