STOUT/RIVER FALLS INDOORS - Medford, Gilman close indoor seasons against tough competition

STOUT/RIVER FALLS INDOORS

Erich Moretz remained one of the top stories of the early season for Medford and Addison Vick got on the scoreboard for Gilman during Thursday’s UW-Stout Elite indoor track and field meet.

Moretz placed sixth out of 46 entrants in the boys shot put competition to account for three of Medford’s six points in the team standings. A first-year senior in the Raiders’ program, he was one of the nine finalists with a preliminary throw of 43 feet, 9 inches. He extended that to 44 9.5 with the first of his three throws in the finals and that stood as his official sixth-place distance and his best mark of the young season. He got to 44-6 too with his next-to-last throw. All nine finalists got throws of at least 44 feet. Moretz finished ahead of Osceola’s Elliot Havlish (44-6), Kayden VanLoon of Onalaska Luther (44-2.25) and Eyan Miller of Prescott (44-1). Wausau West’s Will McCorison won it at 53-6, while Luther’s Jack Schmeling also surpassed 50 feet at 51-8.

Raider Will Daniels scored two points with a seventh-place finish in the 55meter hurdles. He got the eighth and last qualifying spot for the final with a preliminary time of 8.53 seconds. He ran the final in 8.6 seconds. Viroqua’s Kaden Sullivan won in 8.0 seconds, just ahead of Spencer’s Breckin Miller (8.04).

Evan Paul got Medford’s last point by taking eighth in the high jump competition. He topped out at 5-10, along with Abbotsford’s Chase Boller and McDonell Central’s Jordan Sikora, who got sixth and seventh place with fewer misses during the competition. Jaevon Berg of Menomonie cleared the bar at 6-6 to win the event by 2 inches over Onalaska’s Wylder Burch.

Paul also took 12th in the 200-meter dash at 24.12 seconds, 0.23 seconds away from scoring, and he was 15th in the triple jump at 38-11. Luke Klapatauskas earned a 25th-place finish in that event for Medford at a season-best 35-10.25.

Brandon Curtis placed 12th in the 3,200-meter run at 11:18.91 and 26th in the 1,600-meter run at 5:05.14. Hayden Koester was 29th in the 400-meter dash at 58.36 seconds and Paxton Rothmeier was 42nd in the 55-meter dash at 7.04 seconds.

For the Gilman boys, Trevor Vick was 11th in the triple jump competition at 398. He was 3.5 inches away from scoring. Mauston’s Tanner Winker won the event at 42-3.5. Max Ustianowski was 15th in the 55-meter hurdle preliminaries at 9.08 seconds. Sawyer Winger tied for 15th in the high jump at 5-5. Brady McAlpine (56.94) and Logan Halida (57.04) were 22nd and 23rd in the 400-meter dash, while Chad Konsella was 27th in the 55meter dash at 6.95 seconds. The Pirates were 16th in the 1,600-meter relay at 4:12.15.

Girls results

In the girls’ side of Thursday’s meet, Addison Vick was the lone local scorer as she earned 3.5 points by clearing 4-9 in the high jump. That was good for a fourway tie for fourth place. In all, seven jumpers topped out at that height. Vick, Brenna Rogers of Viroqua, Sophia Jacobson of Holmen and Anne Siegenthaler of McDonell were perfect at 4-6 and 4-9 before being unable to clear 5 feet. Onalaska Luther’s Lauren Wickus won by clearing 5-1.

Claire Drier just missed for the Pirates in the 55-meter hurdles. Her preliminary time of 9.7 seconds put her in ninth place, 0.14 seconds shy of making the final. Drier was 15th in the long jump at 14-8 and Vick was 19th at 14-4. Jaylen Copenhaver, who won the Northern Badger Small Schools triple jump title at Stout on March 29, placed 14th in the event Thursday at 31-8. Copenhaver was 21st in the 200-meter dash at 28.43 seconds, while Vick was 26th at 28.76 seconds. Copenhaver was 22nd in the 55meter dash at 7.85 seconds.

The Pirates were 17th in the 1,600meter relay at 4:40.5, just behind Medford’s team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Willow Dassow, Alexis Zuleger and Avery Losiewicz, who finished in 4:39.98.

Losiewicz was part of an eight-way tie for ninth place in the girls pole vault competition. The Raider sophomore cleared 7-6. She added a 33rd-place finish in the shot put at 28-2.25.

Lindsay Kahn was 16th for the Raiders in the 800-meter run at 2:39.69. Pilgrim was 25th in the 400-meter dash at 1:07.14 and Rivalee Stokes was 36th in the 200meter dash at 29.51 seconds.

Menomonie scored 52.5 points to win the boys team championship. The Mustangs outscored Osceola (47) and Mauston (46) for the top spots. Bloomer outscored Menomonie 58-48 to win the girls meet. Chippewa Falls was third with 39 points.

Medford’s Early Bird Invitational, optimistically scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed to today, Thursday, with a start time of 4 p.m. The Raiders are scheduled to go to Stratford Tuesday. Gilman is slated to start outdoor competition the same day at Eleva-Strum.

Pirates at UW-RF

Four Gilman athletes also competed Saturday in the Midwest Indoor Championships hosted by UW-River Falls.

Copenhaver and Addison Vick both scored points for the girls. Copenhaver had another strong showing in the triple jump, going 35-1.5 to place second out of 20 jumpers who got a mark on the board. She easily beat her season-best of 33-8 and finished 10.25 inches ahead of third-place finisher Geneva Rasmussen of Eagen, Minn. Ava Krista of Chippewa Falls won at 36-2.25. Vick added a 16th-place distance of 30-3.25.

Vick scored an eighth-place point in the long jump competition, going 14-10.5. She got the last point by going a quarter-inch further than Holmen’s Bela Waters. Krista won that event as well at 17-1.25. Vick just missed in the high jump, taking ninth at 410. She needed to hit 5 feet to get into scoring contention. Hayden Reeder of Anoka, Minn. was the winner at 5-6.

Trevor Vick set a new personal best and scored three points with a distance of 412.25 that put him in sixth place in the triple jump. His previous best was 39-10 earlier this year. Anoka’s Caleb Nyamari was the champion at 43-1.

Winger added 1.5 points by tying for seventh in the high jump. He cleared 5-10 to tie for second out of nine jumpers who topped out at that height. Five jumpers got 6 feet or higher, led by Anoka’s Isaiah Salami at 6-6. Winger added a 12th-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 19-1, easily his best of the short indoor season. Salami won at 21-9.25.

The girls’ nine points put them 16th in the team standings. Holmen handily won the meet with 97 points. With 4.5 points, the boys placed 17th. Stillwater, Minn. won the meet with 102 points.

Addison Vick