MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD - Good showing for Raiders in indoor finale at Northland Pines

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

The last indoor track and field meet of the spring was a good one for the Medford Raiders, who placed second in the girls meet and third on the boys side Thursday at the Northland Pines Invitational.

The meet featured all seven of the Great Northern Conference schools, though each squad was still, undoubtedly, toying with lineups. Still, the Raiders came away knowing they will be competitive outdoors in several areas.

The girls scored 121 points to edge Northland Pines by nine points for second place. Tomahawk won the meet with 140 points. Rhinelander was fourth with 83 points, followed by Lakeland (75), Antigo (41) and Mosinee (36). Three Lakes also joined the meet field and did not score.

Medford won five events, two of which came in relays, two more came individually from Jaylin Machon and the last one was earned by sophomore Lindsay Kahn, who took the 3,200-meter run in 13:44.58, easily beating runner-up Kristiana Clay of Lakeland (14:43.35).

Machon tied her school-record height of 10 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault and won that event handily by 2 feet over teammate Avery Losiewicz. Ady Dittrich got her first mark of the spring, finishing 11th at 6 feet. Machon added a winning time of 9.86 seconds in the 55-meter hurdles, while Dittrich was sixth in 11.94 seconds. Machon beat runner-up Aila Bergmann of Rhinelander by 0.52 seconds.

The Raiders scored well in the 200-meter hurdles too. Bergmann won it at 32.51 seconds, but Losiewicz was second in 32.87 seconds, just ahead of Machon (33.83) and Dittrich was seventh in 38.13 seconds, giving Medford 16 points in the event.

Medford scored 28 relay points. The first 10 came from the winning team of Ella Daniels, Meredith Richter, Morgan Liske and Kahn in the 3,200-meter race. Their time of 11:06.52, easily beat second-place Tomahawk B by 41.79 seconds. Tomahawk A was third in 11:50.92.

The Raiders got 10 more first-place points from their 1,600-meter team of Losiewicz, Aliyah Pilgrim, Toryn Rau and Richter, who finished in 4:29.12, 2.62 seconds ahead of Tomahawk’s top team. Lakeland was third in 4:32.48. The 800-meter team of Brenley Beran, Rivalee Stokes, Pilgrim and Rau was second in 2:03.91, 2.46 seconds behind Northland Pines. Medford’s B team of Rachel Wesle, Autumn Cooley, Alexis Zuleger and Liske was fifth at 2:12.06.

Shot put was another big event for Medford, with three girls scoring. Lindsey Klapatauskas was third with a season-best toss of 28-4, 2 inches ahead of fourth-place Stokes, while Rachel Wesle was fifth at 276. Bridget Wesle added a 14th-place throw of 23-10.5.

Klapatauskas added a sixth-place and season-best distance of 29 feet in the triple jump. Daniels got the eighth-place point in the long jump at 13-5.5, while Beran was 13th at 12-2.

Sophomore Felicity Ziehlke scored eight points with two fifth-place finishes. She ran the 1,600-meter race in 6:26.42 to just sneak past Daniels by 0.17 seconds, while Raider Ella Dassow was seventh in 6:26.65. Carly Koski was 14th at 6:57.33. In the 800-meter race, Ziehlke was fifth in 2:56.53, just ahead of teammate Morgan Liske (2:57.21). Dassow placed ninth in 3:01.01, 2.99 seconds away from scoring, while Koski was 12th at 3:07.05.

Zuleger got the eighth-place point in the 400-meter dash in 1:11.63, while Addison Juedes was 10th at 1:12.49, Bridget Wesle was 13th in 1:17.2 and Ellie Eckert was 15th in 1:18.34.

Rau led four Raiders in the 200-meter dash by placing ninth in 31.52 seconds, 0.65 seconds shy of scoring. Zuleger was 11th (31.93), Juedes was 17th (33.35) and Cooley was 19th (33.72). Beran was 16th in the 55-meter dash at 8.56 seconds, Klapatauskas (8.78) was 18th, Juedes (9.18) was 23rd and Eckert (9.54) was 27th. Cooley also tied for 10th in the high jump by clearing 4 feet. Juedes tied for 13th at 3-8.

Boys take third

Medford’s boys team also won two relays and Gage Losiewicz won the pole vault as the Raiders scored 103 points to trail Northland Pines (136.5) and Rhinelander (115) in the final standings. Lakeland was a distant fourth with 60 points, followed by Tomahawk (57.5). Three Lakes tied Mosinee for sixth with 57 points and Antigo was eighth with 25 points.

Owen Stockwell, Peyton Ried, Adyn Gripentrog and Brandon Curtis teamed up to win the meet’s opening race, the 3,200-meter relay, in a time if 9:36.03. The Raiders held off Tomahawk’s B entry by 1.44 seconds, while Rhinelander was third at 9:39.68. To close the meet, the 1,600-meter team of Isaac Kautzer, Hayden Koester, Gripentrog and Logan Gubser won its race in 3:51.53, finishing comfortably ahead of second-place Northland Pines (4:03.7).

Kautzer, Caleb Scoles, Gubser and Losiewicz took second in the 800-meter relay in 1:42.82, 0.21 seconds ahead of third-place Rhinelander and 2.84 seconds behind the winning squad from Northland Pines. Medford’s B team of Hudson Briggs, Will Daniels, Adam Kowalski and Jason Scott was seventh in 1:52.33, just 0.06 seconds behind sixth-place Lakeland A.

Losiewicz’s winning height in the pole vault was 12 feet, 2 feet better than Mosinee’s Mason Pompo. Kowalski won a tiebreak and placed third at 9 feet over Tomahawk’s Jerome Morrison.

Evan Paul didn’t win an event, but the junior had a big scoring night for Medford.

Entered in open sprints for the first time this spring, Paul took third in the 200-meter dash in 25.25 seconds, just behind winner Tyler Janikowski of Three Lakes (24.13) and runner-up Eli Kerner of Pines (24.52). Koester got the eighth-place point at 26.41 seconds. Medford’s Alan Scheel (28.16) and Jordan Lavin (28.34) were 18th and 20th.

Paul was fourth in the 55-meter dash at 7.09 seconds. Kerner won that (6.86), followed by Rhinelander’s Zachary Germain (7.0) and Cole Wiedenbeck of Pines (7.03). Paul was 0.03 seconds ahead of Jacob Beer, also from Pines. Raider Paxton Rothmeier was 11th in 7.38 seconds, Scoles (7.51) was 14th and Scheel (7.85) was 22nd.

Paul took third at 19-5 and Gubser was fourth at 18-10.5 in the long jump competition, not far behind Janikowski (1910.5) and Rhinelander’s Truman Lamers (19-6). Raiders Ryker Hallam (11-5) and Nevyn Gripentrog (11-3.5) were 26th and 27th. Paul cleared 5-6 in the high jump and was part of a three-way tie for fourth. Mosinee’s Omar Ingram won by clearing 6-3.

Daniels had a strong night in the hurdles events, taking second out of eight entrants in the 55-meter race at 9.43 seconds and third out of 15 competitors in the 200-meter race at 29.81 seconds. Rothmeier was right behind Daniels in the 200 at 30.0 seconds and Hudson Briggs (32.96) was 10th. Janikowski won that in 27.51 seconds, while Mosinee’s Zander Deiniger won the 55 in 9.31 seconds.

Stockwell, a senior, had a nice night individually too, led by a third-place finish in the triple jump at 38-5.5. Janikowski got another win there, going 42-9 and Lamers hit 40-10. Raider Axel Brushaber was 12th at 33-3.5. Stockwell competed in his first 3,200-meter run of the spring and placed fifth at 11:39.49, just ahead of teammate Brandon Curtis (11:41.57).

Evan Pagel was 12th in the 800-meter run at 2:28.29, while Ried (2:29.65) was 14th, Nevyn Gripentrog (2:59.29) was 22nd and Silas Briggs (3:00.11) was 23rd. Anthony Seidel ran the 1,600 meters in 5:34.18 to take 12th, while Hunter Briggs (6:00.02) and Pagel (6:00.06) were 16th and 17th. Scott was 14th in the 400-meter dash in 1:05.14, while Lavin (1:05.46) was 16th, Brushaber (1:06.26) was 18th and Hallam (1:32.11) was 21st.

Senior Cory Lindahl made his season debut by placing 14th in the shot put competition with a throw of 35-1. Logan Langdon improved to 31-11 and took 18th, Christopher Dunn took a big jump to 299, good for a 21st-place tie, and William Bartnik was 24th at 28-5.5.

Outdoor start

Medford plans to get its outdoor season started today, Thursday, with its annual Early Bird Invitational at Raider Field. Start time is 4 p.m. with Athens, Colby, Greenwood, Loyal, Newman Catholic and Stratford scheduled to attend.

The Raiders are then off to the Mosinee Invitational on Tuesday.

Raider Alexis Zuleger sprints with Rhinelander’s Nicole Long during their heat of the 200-meter dash Thursday. Zuleger’s time of 31.93 seconds ranked 11th out of 25 finishers in the event. BRETT LaBORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES