Raider girls get first meet win of the fall at Colby

With all five scorers among the top 18 finishers, the Medford girls cross country team picked up its first victory of 2024 Saturday by taking the Colby-Abbotsford Invitational.

The Raiders totaled 32 points to outscore Bonduel (48), Colby (72), Stanley-Boyd (82) and Mosinee (125), while seven other teams were represented in the race but did not have five runners to earn a team score.

The top two spots individually were settled early. Bonduel junior Mariah Wondra quickly separated from the pack and won easily in 19:39.33. Medford junior Lindsay Kahn also basically ran the race by herself, finishing in 20:30.23, almost 31 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Azul Diaz of Abbotsford (21:01.18). Colby’s Annamarie Schmitt was fourth in 21:08.81.

In Medford’s third race in a year’s time on this course, Kahn’s time was her best by 29 seconds.

While the Raiders didn’t put any more runners in the top 10, they packed the next eight spots to close out the team win.

Morgan Liske was 12th in 22:37 and Mallory Richter was 14th in 23:08.05. Ella Dassow came in 16th at 23:47.36 and Greta Seidel lowered her time to 24:01.37, taking 18th.

Willow Dassow was 23rd in 24:40.27 and Carly Koski was 27th in the varsity race of 47 with a time of 25:10.16.

Medford’s boys team took third out of five scoring varsity teams with 65 points. They trailed Bonduel, the 12th-ranked Division 3 team in the state last week who scored 35 points, and Columbus Catholic, who totaled 54. Mosinee (91) and Colby-Abbotsford (97) were fourth and fifth. Seven more teams were represented in the 51runner race. Senior Brandon Curtis led Medford again with his sixthplace time of 18:18.6, easily his best time in the year’s three races on the Colby course. The top four runners all broke the 18-minute barrier, led by Columbus Catholic’s Isaac Scheer, who led wire to wire and finished in 16:31.1. Owen-Withee’s Colton Paczkowski (17:16.54), Flambeau’s Dakota Nelson (17:35.29), Columbus Catholic’s Nathan Scheer (17:38.62) and Mosinee’s George Ahles (18:10.28) rounded out the top five.

Head coach Jake Rhyner said he was pleased with the way his next group of Raiders packed together with a 30-second gap separating scorers two through five.

Corbyn Radlinger was 16th in 19:53.25 and Peyton Ried got the last top-20 spot at 20:15.89. Will Daniels was 22nd in 20:21.93, lowering his time from a year ago by about 55 seconds, and Evan Pagel took 23rd in 20:23.58, about 57 seconds faster than his sectional time at Colby from last October.

Freshman Ace Arndt was 25th in 20:36.91 and sophomore Ayden Tyznik was 33rd in 21:11.36.

Medford did well in the JV races, earning the top two individual spots in each one.

Esmeralda Anderson won the girls race in 25:11.7, while Kayla Daniels was second in 25:39.45, well ahead of thirdplace finisher Carisa Steen of Colby (26:56.47). Lexus Hraby was sixth out of 16 runners in 28:55.53 and Lauren Stark was 10th at 30:06.07.

Jordan Lavin won the 16-runner boys race with a time of 21:04.55, while Angus Hamland was second in a season-best time of 21:25.25. Nevyn Gripentrog was sixth in a season-best 22:22.81, Corbyn Fuchs was eighth in a season-best 22:23.11, Isiah Wallace-Szydel was 10th in 24:49.11 and Isaac Damm was 12th in a season-best 26:55.01.

Medford was the only scoring team in the boys race, while Abbotsord was the only scoring team for the girls.

Medford is at Wausau East’s 68th annual Smiley Invitational this Saturday. Placed in the Division 1 Small Division, the Raiders will run in the back half of the meet with the JV girls race set for 10 a.m., followed by the girls varsity at 10:35 a.m., the boys varsity at 11:10 a.m. and the boys JV at 11:35 a.m.