MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD PREVIEW - Depth to help Raider boys; girls light on numbers this spring
MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD PREVIEW
The spring track and field season tends to fly by pretty fast, but it can often be a fascinating journey for those involved as they work toward building a lineup by mid-May that will create the most scoring for the team and provide the most individual opportunities for post-season advancement late in May.
The process of figuring out just what they have is well underway for the 2025 Medford Raiders, whose teams competed in two indoor meets last week and have been hard at work since March 10. A lot of that work was able to take place outside in the first week, when the school district was on spring break, but winter has been a bit stubborn since, keeping more things indoors recently.
The indoor meets did give new head coach Joshua Ognenoff and his staff an idea of what their strengths may be this season. As Ognenoff said between events in Marshfield last week, everything is a trialand-error work in progress leading up to the May 20 Great Northern Conference meet at Mosinee.
Medford will send athletes to today’s UW-Stout Elite meet and is hoping to start outdoor competition already on Tuesday with its annual Early Bird Invitational with Athens, Colby, Greenwood, Loyal, Newman Catholic and Turtle Lake on the current list of attending teams.
Ognenoff takes over the head coaching position from Shawn Sullivan, who stepped down after four years in the head position and several more as an assistant. Ognenoff, the choir director at Medford Area Senior High, coached the throwers last spring and has been a football assistant the past two falls.
Veteran assistant Katie Losiewicz is back, along with Hallie Eisfeldt and Greg Klapatauskas, while Dilan Schneider, a Rib Lake native who completed a successful throwing career with UW-Stevens Point’s track and field program last spring, is the newcomer on the staff. They’re leading a program whose numbers lean heavily toward the boys side of things this spring. The boys finished third in last year’s GNC meet, which came down to the last event. They were three points behind cochampions Northland Pines and Lakeland. The Raiders went on to place second at the WIAA Division 2 regional meet they hosted, 15 points behind Oconto Falls. The depth on the 2025 boys roster comes from 10 seniors and a large group of incoming freshmen, some of whom are providing immediate help.
The senior group includes familiar names who figure to be the leaders of this year’s team. Evan Paul is off to a strong start with high placements at Marshfield and UW-Stout in the high, long and triple jumps. He hit 6 feet in the high jump and 39-9 in the triple jump at Stout Friday. Paul was a sectional qualifier in the triple jump last spring and placed second in the GNC in that event. He also got honorable mention in the GNC in the 200-meter dash.
Paxton Rothmeier returns as a sprinter and hurdler and Brandon Curtis returns with a chance to be Medford’s top scorer in the long distance events. Rothmeier placed second in the GNC meet last spring in the 110-meter high hurdles. Caleb Scoles was a key member of Medford’s relay teams last year, especially the GNC champion 4x400 team and has experience in the sprints. Anthony Seidel also could factor into some relays and gave Medford scoring in the 800- and 1,600-meter runs last year. Hayden Koester is back after competing in track for the first time as a junior. He’s high jumped and gotten early 400-meter assignments in the opening indoor meets. Jason Scott is looking to make an impact in the sprints.
There are some senior additions as well. Erich Moretz, an All-GNC football player in the fall, has given Medford a huge earlyseason lift in the shot put, hitting 42 feet, 3 inches on Friday at Stout. Damien Dums hit 17-2 in the long jump Friday and Aiden Thao got his first taste of shot putting at Marshfield.
Gage Losiewicz, a 2023 state qualifier in pole vault and last year’s conference champion in that event and a key relay piece the past few years, is also back hoping to find his role at some point as he heals from a December knee surgery.
Will Daniels is the most familiar name in the junior class. He is the GNC’s defending champion in the 110-meter hurdles. Evan Pagel adds distance depth, William and Jonathan Bartnik hope to give Medford scoring in the throws and Ryker Hallam is back in the sprints.
Peyton Ried and Jordan Lavin are the top-scoring returning sophomores. Ried did most of his work on distance relays as well as 400- and 800-meter open runs last spring. Lavin opens the year as one of Medford’s top vaulters and was a dependable sprint relay option last spring. Logan Langdon and Axel Brushaber return and have started their seasons working in field events. Langdon got off a throw of 347 in the shot put Friday. Chris Dunn nearly hit 30 feet in the shot put at Marshfield last Tuesday. Nevyn Gripentrog is back in the distance mix and Alan Scheel got some sprint work last year.
Among the freshman class, Sawyer Hoops has done well early in the sprints, particularly at the 400-meter distance, Angus Hamland has shown early promise in distance, Luke Klapatauskas hit 37-5.5 in the triple jump Friday and Levi Zuleger has worked his way into the sprint relay discussion.
The boys placed third at Marshfield Indoor Invitational and scored 10 points in UW-Stout’s Northern Badger Large Schools Classic.
The girls opened the season with a roster about half the size of the boys, so they’ll be looking for their athletes to multi-task to provide the Raiders with as much team scoring as possible.
The Raiders lost some key athletes to graduation in 2024, most notably the top distance runner in school history, Meredith Richter, who left as the two-time Division 2 state champion in the 800meter run, and Jaylin Machon, who qualified for state in the pole vault twice in three years and also was part of a state relay team as a freshman.
Four seniors lead this year’s group. Ella Dassow and Carly Koski likely fall into the distance category, while Toryn Rau, in her second season with the team, has started in long jump and sprints. Emily Kiselicka is new to the sport and ran in the 55- and 200-meter dashes Friday.
The team’s deepest class is the juniors. Lindsay Kahn, a state cross country qualifier in the fall, figures to be a contender in the distance events. Rivalee Stokes is a versatile athlete who can sprint and throw. She was a sectional qualifier last spring in the discus, hitting a personal-best 111-2 at the sectional meet.
Aliyah Pilgrim is an athlete you could see in just about any relay or sprint race. She also triple jumped at the end of last season. Alexis Zuleger is another sprint and relay veteran for the Raiders. Autumn Cooley has high jumped and sprinted for Medford the past two springs and Adalyn Dittrich has hurdling and pole vault experience and certainly could add relay depth.
Sophomore Avery Losiewicz should be a top scorer for Medford as well. She was the GNC runner-up last spring the 300meter hurdles and is following her brother’s footsteps in the pole vault, where she was third in the GNC last year and qualified for the sectional, where she hit 9 feet. Ellie Eckert had a good opening race in the 440-yard dash at Marshfield Thursday. Willow Dassow adds distance depth. Bridget Wesle has been Medford’s top entrant in shot put so far, hitting 2810.75 at Stout Friday. Maria Valverde Bautista ran the 55- and 220-yard sprints at Marshfield.
Freshman Jordyn Grant has made an early impact in the long and triple jumps and as a sprinter. She was Medford’s top scorer at Marshfield Thursday, when the Raiders placed seventh as a team. Cora Semrau has gotten some early sprint work and Naomi Thomas hit 18-3.25 in the shot put competition Thursday.
The Raider girls placed third a year ago at both the GNC and regional meets that Medford hosted.
