WIAA DIV. 2 TRACK & FIELD - Richter, Machon statebound; others finish strong at Colby

WIAA DIV. 2 TRACK & FIELD

MATT FREY

SPORTS EDITOR

The two seniors Medford’s girls track and field team relied upon most for both scoring and leadership will fittingly end their careers representing their team in this weekend’s WIAA Division 2 state championships at UW-La Crosse.

Meredith Richter completed the same sectional trifecta she did a year ago, qualifying in the 800-meter, 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs at Thursday’s WIAA Division 2 Colby sectional. That included a win in the 800-meter event, where she goes to La Crosse as the defending state champion.

Jaylin Machon just missed reaching the podium in pole vault two years ago at state, but had a sectional setback last year. With a vault of 10 feet, 6 inches at Thursday’s sectional, she’s thrilled to be back.

“I’m excited. I’m excited today wasn’t my last meet,” Machon said after competing Thursday.

Divisions 2 and 3 will compete Friday at the Veterans Memorial Stadium complex starting at 3 p.m. Richter’s 1,600and 800-meter events will be held then. Saturday competition for all three divisions starts at 10 a.m. with the girls Division 2 pole vault action starting early in the afternoon and the 3,200-meter run taking place late in the afternoon.

After pulling three distance races per meet twice last week, Richter is anticipating a big finish to her fine Medford career before she moves on to the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

“It’s going to be better than last year,” Richter said after Thursday’s meet. “I’m going to have three good races, not just one. That’s what we’ve been working on this year. Tonight I know was just about place, but I wanted good races. I had two good races. I’m working on that two-mile. It’s hard. At state it’s nice because that race will be on my second day. So that will be the only thing I have that day and hopefully I can zone in.”

Richter was certainly zoned in during her first two races at Colby.

In the 1,600-meter run, she broke her own school record of 5:12.62 set at state last year and did it fairly convincingly, finishing in 5:08.27. That was good for third place behind her friend and rival Nora Gremban of Northland Pines (4:56.62) and the area’s newest rising star, Bloomer freshman Ciara Hartman (4:56.98). Adison Wilde of Baldwin-Woodville got the fourth state spot at 5:13.42.

“The girls went out fast and coach (Shawn Sullivan) is always like you can’t do that, stay under control,” Richter said. “So I did for the first 200, but then I just felt good. I knew I wanted to race today. I kicked it in. This week we’re tapering, so I have fresh legs, so I was able to put in a good time like that and it felt good.

I was in a funk for a long time. It was about time.”

If you can call it a funk, Richter broke out of it in the 800 too. She jumped ahead quickly and stayed there the whole way, holding off a late push from Gremban to finish in a season-best 2:16.15, 1.51 seconds ahead of Gremban. Amery’s Natasha Tiry (2:21.4) and Jenna Hursh of Northwestern (2:21.88) also advanced.

“I was like this is my race. This is my race,” Richter said. “Some girls were talking before the race about trying to stick with Nora. But I was like I’m going to be up there. That’s my spot. You can’t say that before the race, but I knew I was going to kick it. I had to do it. That was my race and it felt good. It was fun.”

Unfortunately, as track meet timing goes, the 3,200-meter race was less than 30 minutes later. Richter simply did what she had to do, taking fourth in 11:35.18, 11.02 seconds ahead of fifth-place Grace Swanson of Ashland. Hartman was the story of that race, lapping several runners and winning in 10:38.88.

“She just cruises,” Richter said. “She’s so fast. It’s insane. She’s just a little freshman but she’s so sweet. She’s going to do great things. I’m so excited to see that.”

Obviously Richter is going to state to win, but she said she is looking to make sure she enjoys it too before moving on to her next big step. Based on sectional times, she is the top seed in the state 800-meter field, the fourth seed in the 1,600-meter field and the 12th seed in the 3,200.

“I really worked on just having more fun this year,” she said. “I know where I’m going to college. I have everything figured out. Now it’s just about having fun, relaxing and trying not to stress myself out too much.”

While missing out on the state experience last year obviously was disappointing, in a way it brought less pressure this year and, now, getting back to state is something she appreciates a little more.

“I think I was pretty disappointed but it did put some lower expectations for this year, so I’m more excited for this year that I actually got through,” Machon said.

In Thursday’s competition, Machon ran into virtually no trouble until unsuccessfully trying to break her personal record and set a new school record at 10-9.

“I missed fairly low but after that it was pretty smooth,” she said. “I got (heights) all on the first tries up until 10-9.”

Machon came into the competition right away at the opening height of 8 feet and hit first vaults at 8-0, 8-6, 9-6, 10 feet and 10-3. After 10-3, the field was narrowed down to the four state qualifiers. Arcadia’s Casidi Pehler won at 12 feet, Amery’s Kelly Fern was second at 11 feet and Northwestern’s Lillian Hoeffling was fourth at 10-3.

“I got 10-6 which is my PR,” Machon said. “I didn’t get above, but it was pretty solid, so I’ll take it.”

At state in 2022, Machon finished seventh at 10 feet. She is seeded 10th in this year’s field of 16, but pole vault is an event where anything can happen.

Finishing strong

For the rest of the Raiders who competed, Thursday was about putting their best efforts out there and seeing where the chips fell. While their seasons ended, there were several new personal records to celebrate.

The girls finished with 28 points, all but one of which came from the statequalifying performances. That was good for eighth place in the team standings behind Rice Lake (73), Bloomer (68), Osceola (62.5), Northland Pines (52), Amery (48.5), Hayward (34) and Wittenberg-Birnamwood (30).

Machon got that 28th point with an eighth-place finish in the 100-meter high hurdles final. Her time was 16.93 lowering her personal-best by 0.01 seconds from the GNC meet of May 14. She beat Elk Mound’s Allie Robel by 0.64 seconds. Osceola’s Elletta Uddin won in a quick 14.42 seconds. Machon got the ninth and last qualifying spot for the final with a preliminary time of 17.18 seconds.

Along with her pole vault effort, Losiewicz took 10th in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 50.37 seconds. She was second in her heat, 0.63 seconds behind Stanley-Boyd’s Lula Chwala, who was seventh overall. Uddin won this race too in 45.16 seconds.

Rivalee Stokes set a new personal-best on her first throw of the meet in discus competition. Prior to the meet, her best distance of the spring was 108-5. Her first preliminary throw Thursday went 111-2. That gave her the ninth spot in the finals. She added two throws of 110-6, but her first throw sealed ninth place. Prescott’s Makaria Haas got the eighth-place point at 115 feet.

The 400-meter relay team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Stokes, Machon and Losiewicz lowered its time to 52.91 seconds. That was good for third in its heat behind Gale- Ettrick-Trempealeau (G-E-T) (52.11) and Ashland (52.25) and 11th overall. Rice Lake won in 49.94 seconds. Pilgrim, Toryn Rau, Stokes and Brenley Beran were fifth in their heat and 13th overall in the 800-meter relay at 1:54.97. Medford’s GNC rival Tomahawk won the sectional championship at 1:46.45. Sophomore Morgan Liske completed her first track season with a 15th-place time in the 400-meter dash and lowered her time to a season-best 1:07.01. Rice Lake star Eliana Sheplee won in 56.26 seconds.

Medford’s boys scored 11 points to place 20th in the team standings. That scoring came from seven sources.

The 1,600-meter relay team of Gage Losiewicz, Caleb Scoles, Logan Gubser and Isaac Kautzer ended the meet with Medford’s best time of the year in that race at 3:33.47, which was good for sixth place in the fast heat and in the overall standings. GNC rival Lakeland got a great anchor leg from Ethan Gonzalez and got the fourth state spot at 3:30.42, 0.52 seconds ahead of G-E-T. Osceola won at 3:26.16, 1.01 seconds ahead of Prescott. All but Losiewicz in that quartet are seniors.

Gubser and Kautzer each scored in the 400-meter dash, taking second and third in their heat behind Barron Waupoose of Menominee Indian (51.43). Gubser took seventh overall in 52.12 seconds and Kautzer was eighth at 52.48 seconds. Addison Uddin of Osceola won in 49.04 seconds.

Senior Adyn Gripentrog went out on a high note. He won his heat in the 800-meter run with a personal-best time of 2:03.65 that beat runner-up Emerson Rice of Oconto Falls by 3.82 seconds. That time wound up placing seventh overall. Osceola’s Dawson Eckerman got the fourth state spot at 1:59.46. Joey Ludy of Altoona won in 1:58.88.

Sophomore Will Daniels followed up his regional championship with an eighthplace finish in the fast heat and overall in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles. His time was 42.58 seconds and got the event’s last point by 0.06 seconds over Cale Borchert of St.

Croix Falls. Cooper Hennemann of Osceola won in 40.01 seconds, 0.01 seconds over Talon Haling of Lakeland.

Daniels added a 13th-place finish in the 110-meter high hurdles at 17.87 seconds, while Paxton Rothmeier was 16th for Medford at 18.35 seconds.

Rothmeier, Scoles, Losiewicz and Evan Paul won the first heat of the 800-meter relay in 1:33.81, a new best time for that group and 0.2 seconds ahead of Rhinelander. That time wound up placing eighth. Osceola won another close race with a time of 1:29.20, 0.01 seconds ahead of Stanley-Boyd.

Losiewicz added the 11th point with an eighth-place finish in the pole vault. Aiming to return to state in that event, which was loaded with talent this year, Losiewicz didn’t have his best day and topped out at 12 feet, making that on his third attempt. Raider senior Adam Kowalski did not hit the opening height of 11 feet, which is his personal best. Carter Mika of Ashland won the tiebreak criteria among three vaulters who hit 13-9. Two more hit 13-6.

Paul, a junior, made the triple jump final by getting ninth place in the preliminaries. That’s where he stayed with his early jump of 39-8.75. He was 5.25 inches behind eighth-place jumper Kenew Awonohopay of Menominee Indian. Jack Krier of Somerset won at 42-5. Paul also finished 13th in the 200-meter dash in 23.86 seconds. Uddin won that race in 22.25 seconds.

Middle Border Conference teams Osceola (97), Somerset (91) and Prescott (46) were the top three scoring teams. Lakeland was fourth with 44 points.

Raider junior Paxton Rothmeier goes all-out in his opening leg of the 800-meter relay during Thursday’s WIAA Division 2 sectional meet in Colby. Rothmeier, Caleb Scoles, Gage Losiewicz and Evan Paul placed eighth in the race in 1:33.81. NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD/TRIBUNE-PHONOGRAPH

Will Daniels

Medford’s Meredith Richter has the lead coming around the last turn and holds on to that lead over Nora Gremban of Northland Pines, winning the 800-meter run in 2:16.15 during Thursday’s WIAA Div. 2 Colby sectional. Richter also qualified for state in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.

Medford’s Adyn Gripentrog is in second place as he nears the end of his first lap in the 800-meter run at Thursday’s sectional. Gripentrog won the first heat and placed seventh overall in a personalbest time of 2:03.65. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS