MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD - Girls sneak by host Tigers, boys 2nd at Holy Cow meet

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

The Medford Raiders got six wins and needed every one of them to nail down a team win Monday on the girls side of the five-team Holy Cow meet hosted by Stratford.

The clinching win came in the final race, the 1,600-meter relay, where Raiders Aliyah Pilgrim, Morgan Liske, Toryn Rau and Meredith Richter finished in 4:37.36, well ahead of the host Tigers (4:59.53) and Chequamegon (5:48.37).

When all was said and done, Medford had 120 points, four more than Stratford. Those two teams dominated the rest of the pack, which included Athens (50), Chequamegon (44) and Crandon (35).

Medford’s boys won five events and compiled 103.66 points to place second behind a deep Stratford squad, who scored 139.5 points. Chequamegon was third with 71.33 points, followed by Crandon (28) and Athens (26.5).

For Medford, Monday’s meet replaced a meet at Mosinee that was scheduled for Tuesday but was canceled.

Medford’s girls won three of the meet’s four relays. Before the 1,600 finale, the Raiders’ team of Felicity Ziehlke, Ella Dassow, Carly Koski and Rau won the 3,200-meter relay in 11:24.87, edging Athens by 0.61 seconds in a close finish. The 800-meter team of Alexis Zuleger, Jaylin Machon, Pilgrim and Rivalee Stokes won its race in 1:54.93, 3.99 seconds ahead of Crandon. Medford’s B team of Bridget Wesle, Rachel Wesle, Adalyn Dittrich and Autumn Cooley had the fourth-best time at 2:06.

The 400-meter team of Brenley Beran, Zuleger, Rachel Wesle and Ellie Eckert was second in 58.15 seconds, well behind Stratford (53.52).

Stokes got off a big throw of 108 feet, 5 inches to win the discus competition by a wide margin over three Athens throwers, led by runner-up Delaney Beasly (87-- 2). Bridget Wesle got the fifth-place point for Medford at 82-1, while Klapatauskas was sixth and Rachel Wesle was eighth at 74-9. Stokes and Bridget Wesle both improved by double- digit feet over Thursday’s Medford Early Bird meet.

Machon won the 100-meter hurdles in 17.83 seconds, 0.78 seconds ahead of Crandon’s Grace Adler and she took second in the pole vault by clearing 10 feet, 6 inches behind Athens’ Malaina Telschow. Medford’s Avery Losiewicz cleared a season-best 9 feet to place fourth. Machon added a second-place time of 52.36 seconds, while Dittrich was third in 56.04 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles. They trailed Stratford’s Dawnyel Martin (51.95).

Richter won the 400-meter dash in 59.95 seconds, not far off her school record of 59.88 seconds from last year. She beat Chequamegon star Autumn Michalski by 1.11 seconds. Michalski, however, got Richter in the 800-meter run later in the meet in a battle between two of the state’s best. Michalski won that race in 2:18.83, while Richter came in at 2:23.44 and Raider Lindsay Kahn was fourth in 2:36.12. In the 400, Losiewicz was fourth for Medford in 1:05.56 and Morgan Liske was fifth at 1:08.96.

Kahn added a fourth-place time of 5:57.18 in the 1,600-meter run, while Ella Daniels had an improved seventhplace time of 6:20.99. Koski entered her first 3,200-meter run and took second in 15:05.44.

Losiewicz took her first attempts of the season in the shot put and did well, taking second at 28-4, 6.5 inches behind Stratford’s Peyton Drexler. Stokes was fourth at 26-9.5 and Klapatauskas got the fifth-place point at 25-7.5. Losiewicz sprinted to third place in the 200-meter dash at 28.1 seconds with Pilgrim (28.77) and Zuleger (30.21) right behind her.

Cooley cleared 4-2 to take third in the high jump, while Addison Juedes was fifth at 3-10. Beran lowered her time to 14.22 seconds and took third in the 100-meter dash, while Klapatauskas was 0.25 seconds away from scoring, taking seventh in 14.68 seconds. Klapatauskas went 28-6.5 to take fourth in the triple jump. Rau got the fifth-place point in the long jump with a season-best jump of 13-5 while Beran was eighth at 12-9.75.

Boys highlights

Medford got individual wins from four different athletes in Monday’s meet.

Evan Paul had his second straight highscoring meet, highlighted by a personalbest distance of 40-11.25 in the triple jump. That won the event by 11 inches over Stratford’s Brandon Knetter. Raider Owen Stockwell was fifth at 37-11.75 and Axel Brushaber was seventh with a new best of 34-11.

Paul was second in the long jump at 19-4, 5.25 inches behind Stratford’s Coltan Breit and second in the high jump at 5-4, well behind Stratford’s Xander Curtice. Logan Gubser was 2.25 inches away from scoring in the long jump, taking sixth at 16-7.75, while Hayden Koester was eighth in the high jump at 4-10.

Caleb Scoles won the 400-meter dash in 54.96 seconds, beating Chequamegon’s Jarrett Heckendorf by 0.22 seconds and dropping his time from Thursday by 0.99 seconds. Raider Adyn Gripentrog was third at 55.94 seconds. Will Daniels finished the 110-meter high hurdles in 17.72 seconds to edge Chequamegon’s Robert Schienebeck by 0.1 seconds and win that race. Daniels added a third-place time of 44.96 in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, while teammate Paxton Rothmeier (47.43) was fourth and Hudson Briggs (48.42) was sixth.

Brandon Curtis improved his time by about 10 seconds and won the 3,200-meter run in 11:31.8. He was well ahead of Chequamegon’s Jayden Oscar (11:44.82). Medford’s Evan Pagel was sixth in 13:01.42, while Hunter (13:25.22) and Silas Briggs (14:06.81) were seventh and eighth.

Gage Losiewicz, Gripentrog, Koester and Gubser picked up Medford’s last win of the night, taking the 1,600-meter relay in 3:43.69, a time that was 5.42 seconds better than what that group ran Thursday in Medford. They beat Stratford by 2.04 seconds.

Pagel, Stockwell, Silas Briggs and Anthony Seidel ran the 3,200-meter relay in 9:40.57 to take second just behind Athens (9:38.73). Isaac Kautzer, Gubser, Losiewicz and Paul just missed in the 800-meter relay, taking second in 1:34.69, 0.45 seconds behind Stratford. The B team of Logan Langdon, Brushaber, Jordan Lavin and Hudson Briggs was fourth in 1:50.96.

Rothmeier, Cory Lindahl, Scoles and Kautzer ran the 400-meter relay in 47.51 seconds to take second behind Stratford (43.57). Lavin, Brushaber, Adam Kowalski and Alan Scheel (52.06) were fourth.

Losiewicz equaled his season-best height of 13 feet to take second in the pole vault behind Athens’ Ryan Peel (13-6). Lavin and Kowalski were part of a threeway tie for fifth at 9-6. That was a new best height for Lavin.

Kautzer was second in the 200-meter dash at 23.94 seconds, 1.44 seconds behind Stratford’s Jett Schoenherr. Gubser (24.86) got the fifth-place point, Scoles (25.1) was seventh and Koester (25.52) was eighth.

Gripentrog (2:10.68) and Stockwell (2:13.19) posted improved times to take third and fourth in the 800-meter run, won by Crandon’s Taylor Karcz in 2:01.74.

Rothmeier took fourth in the 100-meter dash at 12.05 seconds and Scheel was eighth in a much-improved 12.68 seconds. Lindahl improved by 25 feet and placed fifth in the discus at 96-11. Langdon (89-9) and Christopher Dunn (85-11) also made big improvements and took seventh and eighth. Lindahl was sixth in the shot put at 33-4 and Langdon was eighth at 30-2.5. Curtis was sixth in the 1,600-meter run in another improved time of 5:16.43 and Peyton Ried was eighth at 5.29.55.

Medford will host its annual invitational on Tuesday, starting at 4 p.m. Gilman, Abbotsford, Antigo, Lakeland, Marathon, Northland Pines, Stanley-Boyd, Tomahawk and Wittenberg-Birnamwood are currently scheduled to attend.