TIMM’S HILL INVITATIONAL - Hawks look tough to start the season; Medford girls take 2nd

TIMM’S HILL INVITATIONAL

For the second straight year, the Prentice-Rib Lake Hawks defended their home hill on the boys’ side of Thursday’s season-opening Timm’s Hill Cross Country Invitational.

To do it, the Hawks beat two teams they’ll compete with later in the season for the Marawood Conference championship –– Phillips and Stratford. Phillips is also a team the Hawks will contend with in the postseason.

The Medford Raiders’ young squad opened its year with a fourth-place finish.

In the girls meet, Medford had its fouryear winning streak at Timm’s Hill ended by Phillips, who outplaced the Raiders 34-58. Medford got top-10 finishes from Lindsay Kahn and Mallory Richter, while the Hawks’ Kylie Orysen was ninth.

In the boys race, Prentice-Rib Lake got a great start in the scoring with its top guns, Kaleb Scott, Henry Regier and Jack Regier finishing third through fifth. Senior Elijah Scott and sophomore Truman Smith slammed the door shut on the Loggers, Tigers and Raiders by taking 12th and 13th, while three more Hawks finished in the top 19.

Kaleb Scott, who finished fifth in last year’s Timm’s Hill meet in 18:52, posted a time of 17:58.4 in this year’s meet to settle into third place behind Stratford’s Cree DeFoe (17:40.5) and Henry Regier (18:15.9). Regier was almost two minutes faster on the course than he was last year. Jack Regier got into an all-out sprint with Stratford’s Ethan Heeg in the last 100 meters and won it by 0.2 seconds, finishing with a time of 18:27.3, over a minute and a half better than last year.

Gavin Esterholm of Phillips jumped ahead early and won the race in 17:17.8. Medford senior Brandon Curtis got the last top-10 spot and a medal with his time of 19:22.8, nearly 1:40 ahead of his pace from 2023.

“I’m happy with our top-10 performers,” Medford head coach Jake Rhyner said. “We need to close gaps with our 2-5 runners. Understandably this was a challenging course and difficult way to start the season, but it demonstrates the significance of running throughout the summer months. Lindsay, Mallory and Brandon did a great job setting the tone for the season, all earning a medal.”

Jeremy Wiitala (19:56.5), Hagan Isaacson (19:58.6) and Heston Hueckman (20:13) were 16th, 17th and 19th for the Hawks, who totaled 35 points, 12 fewer than Phillips. Stratford had 51 points and Medford had 107. Athens, Butternut, Auburndale and Thorp did not have the five finishers necessary to earn a team score.

Medford had 13 runners out of 63 who finished the boys race. Freshman Corbyn Radlinger was the team’s second finisher, placing 28th at 21:08.9. Veterans Peyton Ried (21:39.2) and Evan Pagel (21:47.5) were 33rd and 35th around Prentice-Rib Lake’s Seamus Highfill (21:40.6). Raider Jordan Lavin was Medford’s fifth scorer, finishing 39th in 22:26.3. Ayden Tyznik was 43rd in 22:39.8, Will Daniels and Ace Arndt were 45th and 46th at 22:53.2, Angus Hamland was 48th at 24:08, Nevyn Gripentrog took 52nd in 24:48.7, Corbyn Fuchs came in 56th at 26:27.5, Isiah Wallace-Szydel was 60th in 31:00.9 and Isaac Damm was 62nd at 32:39.2.

Rounding out the Hawks’ crew of 15 were Connor Highfill, 24th at 20:50.6; Eliah Harding, 29th at 21:17; Mason Hause, 41st at 22:33.8; Kevin Head, 51st at 24:39.5; Dene Zuleger, 53rd at 25:47.2, and Riley Johnson, 57th at 27:18.5.

Girls highlights

Medford put its first five runners among the top 23 finishers in Thursday’s girls race, which included 59 competitors.

Kahn, a junior, got ahead of Thorp’s Shaylie Zarza to grab third place in 22:06.5. Leah Harper of Phillips won in 21:12.5 and was comfortably ahead of Stratford’s Kayla Casperson (21:37.3).

Richter finished in 23:53.1 to earn the last top-10 spot. The Hawks’ two-time Division 3 state qualifier, Orysen, came in at 23:25.1, 19.7 seconds behind eighth-place finisher Addie Gabay of Phillips.

Morgan Liske was 14th for the Raiders in 24:26.7, Ella Dassow was 18th in 25:11 and Willow Dassow was the fifth scorer with her 23rd-place time of 26:05.1. Carly Koski, a senior addition to the roster, was 31st in 28:00.7 on the tough Timm’s Hill course. Esmeralda Anderson placed 36th in 28:30.6, Greta Seidel was 40th in 29:19.6, Josey Krug was 47th at 31:27.3, Lexus Hraby was 50th in 31.54.7, Lauren Stark was 51st at 32:29.5 and another new senior, Isabella Leischer, was 56th at 38:25.9.

The Hawks’ Kloey Paul was 43rd in 30:40.5 and Avie Schutt took 52nd in 32:30.2 in their first-ever varsity cross country races.

Stratford was third in the team standings with 73 points, two better than Auburndale. Thorp was fifth with 122. The Hawks, Athens and Butternut were incomplete.

Prentice-Rib Lake competes at Marathon’s Invitational today, Thursday, at Nine Mile Recreation Area. The Hawks are also at Chequamegon Saturday. Medford, after competing Tuesday at Mosinee, will be at Marshfield Tuesday, Sept. 10.

Middle school

Thursday’s meet started with middle school races. In the boys meet, Medford scored 30 points to fall four points behind Phillips and the Hawks were third with 76 points. Medford had four top-10 runners. Oliver Daniels (13:03.7), Tanner Gebauer (13:26.8), Parker Ried (13:45.9) and Jett Jones (14:03.1) were third, fourth, fifth and seventh. Prentice-Rib Lake’s Alex Meyer was 11th in 14:25.7.

Phillips won the girls meet with 27 points, ahead of Prentice-Rib Lake (48), Medford (64) and Thorp (97). The Hawks’ Greta Regier (13:32.4), Ella Orysen (13:33.3) and Molly Adams (13:33.8) were third, fourth and sixth. Medford’s Melanie Richter was seventh in 13:43.5.

Medford’s Peyton Ried gets into a sprint to the finish line with Auburndale’s James Binder as they approach the final uphill climb Thursday at Timm’s Hill. Binder got to the finish line 2.6 seconds ahead of Ried to finish 32nd. Hawk Seamus Highfill (410) was 1.4 seconds behind Ried.

Prentice-Rib Lake’s Kloey Paul (above) and Medford’s Lindsay Kahn navigate through the early traffic at the start of Thursday’s girls race at Timm’s Hill. Kahn finished third and Paul was 43rd in the season’s first race.