MEDFORD-COLBYGYMNASTICS - Gymnasts place third at Antigo, fall just short at Mosinee Quad

MEDFORD-COLBY GYMNASTICS

Raylin Rothmeier won the vault competition and placed third in the allaround competition to lead the Medford-Colby gymnastics team to a third-place finish in Saturday’s Julie Langseth Memorial Invitational hosted by Antigo.

The Raiders compiled a team score of 126.5 to take third out of nine teams. Marshfield won the meet with 129.8 points, just ahead of Valders-Roncalli’s total of 128.525. Medford-Colby got by a couple teams it hadn’t seen before this season, West Bend West (125.425) and Port Washington (123.825) for third.

Rothmeier’s win in the vault came with a score of 8.7. She edged Port Washington’s Maddie Mellesmoen by 0.05 points and Makenna Kaderabek of Valders-Roncalli by one-tenth to get it.

As a team, the Raiders had a solid day on vault with 33.35 team points and almost had five scores in the 8s. Delaina Meyer tied for eighth place out of 45 vaulters with her 8.45. Jordyn Grant tied for 21st at 8.15, Shayla Radlinger was right behind her at 8.05 and Veronica Mateer got a 7.9.

Rothmeier also cracked the top five in the floor exercise, earning an 8.6 from the judges that wasn’t far off from her season-best of 8.775. She was 0.15 points behind winner Leanna Lipske of the Ashland Co-op. Marshfield’s Kylee Richardson (8.675), Kaderabek (8.65) and Ella Geniesse of West Bend West (8.65) were just ahead of Rothmeier.

Adding to the Raiders’ floor total of 32.325 were Meyer and Radlinger, who placed 13th and 14th at 8.175 and 8.15, as well as Mateer (7.4) and Brooke Buechel (7.3).

Mateer tied Lipske for fifth place out of 44 entrants on the balance beam by earning a score of 8.3. Olivia Sommers of Marshfield was the winner at 8.7, 0.05 points ahead of her teammate Kiki Manicke. The rest of the Raiders scored in the high 7s. Radlinger was 13th at 7.85. Rothmeier got a 7.8 to tie teammate Lindsey Kauffman for 14th. The 7.8 was Kauffman’s best beam score of the season. Meyer tied for 18th at 7.6.

Meyer continued to lead the Raiders on the uneven bars. She was part of a threeway tie for seventh place with West Bend West’s Avery Lessner and Ashland’s Alexandria Vittone with her score of 7.65. Also scoring in the 7s for Medford-Colby were Rothmeier, 16th at 7.35; Mateer, 18th at 7.075 and Radlinger, 19th at 7.0. Grant wasn’t far off with a 6.85, which was an improvement of 0.425 points over her one previous varsity bars routine at River Falls Jan. 11.

It all added up to 32.45 all-around points for Rothmeier. Only Lipske (33.2) and Marshfield’s Isabella Ryner (33.1) earned more in the meet. Meyer wound up ninth with an all-around score of 31.875. Radlinger was 14th with 31.05 points and Mateer was 18th with 30.675.

The Raiders are home for the final time this season tonight, Thursday, hosting Wisconsin Rapids in a Great Northern Conference Large Division dual meet. Rapids is 1-1 in the division, while Medford-Colby is 0-2. The meet starts at 5:45 p.m. at Medford Area Elementary School.

2nd at Mosinee

On Jan. 28, the Raiders fought through some adversity while coming away with a second-place finish at the Mosinee Quad.

The Ashland Co-op, a late entrant into the meet, won it with 127.3 points, just ahead of Medford-Colby’s 125.9. Mosinee (113.85) and Antigo (113.275) were well behind.

While it was the team’s lowest-scoring output of the season and the Raiders had to dip a little deeper into their pool of young talent in the varsity meet, there were some highlights.

Meyer won the bars competition with an 8.05 and Rothmeier took third at 7.65 with Antigo’s Alexia Rank in between them. Medford-Colby had the highest team score in the event at 29.75 with Radlinger coming in seventh at 7.25, Mateer placing 11th at 6.8 and Bridget Cloud tying for 13th at 5.9.

Meyer also took third on the vault with a score of 8.1 Ashland’s Kaia Werner got off a spectacular vault to get a score of 9.35. Lipske was one-tenth ahead of Meyer. Grant tied Rank for fourth place with a 7.95. They were just ahead of Rothmeier and Radlinger, who tied for sixth at 7.9. Mateer added a 7.5.

The Raiders also turned in the meet’s top team score on the balance beam at 32.35. Mateer was in the mid-8s for the fourth straight meet, placing second at 8.4 and Radlinger tied her top score of the season at 8.25 to take third. Rothmeier’s 8.15 put her in fifth place. Meyer got a 7.55 to take eighth and Kauffman stepped into the lineup and took ninth with a 7.15. Werner again won easily with a 9.25.

Meyer dropped out of the floor exercise, putting two freshmen in Medford-Colby’s lineup. Rothmeier had the team’s top score, taking fourth with an 8.55. Buechel’s 7.925 was her best score of the season, varsity or JV, and was good for eighth place. Radlinger and Mateer were 10th and 11th at 7.75 and 7.725. Grant filled the fifth spot and got a 7.3 in her first varsity floor routine.

Werner won the floor at 9.025 and was easily the meet’s top all-around gymnast with 34.525 total points. Rothmeier was a solid second with 32.25 points, beating Lipske by 0.15 points. Radlinger (31.15) and Mateer (30.425) were fifth and sixth out of 14 gymnasts who competed in every event.

Several scores went upward for Medford-Colby’s JV gymnasts, who won the meet with 110.7 points. Antigo (64.5), Ashland (53.05) and Mosinee (25.7) rounded out those team scores.

The Raiders had the top four scorers on both vault and bars.

On vault, Rylee Hartwig was the winner at 7.7, one-tenth ahead of Hadalye Ziehlke and Buechel. Kauffman earned a 7.3 and Ada Freiberg tied for seventh at 7.0, a new best for her. On the bars, Buechel went up 1.2 points with a new personal-best of 7.3 and won the event. Grant’s 7.0 was a new best, Kauffman got a 6.0 and Hartwig was fourth at 4.7.

Kauffman dazzled on the floor with a 7.7 that won the competition and was 1.2 points higher than her previous seasonbest. Ziehlke’s 7.3 beat her previous best by two-tenths and took second. Bethany Jokiel tied her best with a 7.05 that took fourth and Hartwig tied for seventh at 6.55. Grant went up a full point and took third on the balance beam at 7.1, one-tenth ahead of Hartwig’s fourth-place score. Jokiel and Buechel tied for seventh with 6.4s. That was a season-best for Jokiel. Freiberg tied for 10th with a new best of 5.1.

Hartwig was the meet’s only JV allaround. She totaled 25.95 points.