MEDFORD INVITATIONAL - Domination for Medford boys; lots of local wins
MEDFORD INVITATIONAL
There were several wins and second-place finishes to go around for local athletes, with most of the wins coming from the Medford boys, who dominated the field while winning that side of Tuesday’s Medford Invitational at Raider Field.
The Raiders won nine of the 18 track and field events while scoring 178 points to easily outscore runner-up Northland Pines, who put 114 points on the board. The Gilman Pirates were fourth out of nine teams with 64 points, 19 behind third-place Stanley-Boyd and nine ahead of fifth-place Tomahawk.
Medford got four event wins and claimed third place in the closely-contested girls’ side of the meet. The Raiders posted 109 points, which was not quite enough to outscore Tomahawk (114) and Stanley-Boyd (110.5). Northland Pines edged Gilman 80.5-77 for fourth place with Abbotsford ranking a distant sixth (50).
With the sun shining and the winds staying at a reasonable level, the day was a win for all of the teams, who have faced weather challenges in the first two weeks of the outdoor season. That was especially true for the host Raiders, who made their outdoor debut after having their first two meets canceled and took the opportunity to enter as many kids in as many events as possible.
This was Gilman’s second outdoor meet. The Pirates had to cancel their first home meet on Thursday due to the weather.
Boys highlights
Among Medford’s nine winners Tuesday were Evan Paul and Will Daniels, who both won twice.
Daniels swept the hurdles events, getting by Gilman’s Max Ustianowski in both races to do it. First, in the 110-meter high hurdles, Daniels finished in 17.76 seconds, while Ustianowski was timed at 18.02 seconds and Raider freshman Luke Klapatauskas was fourth at 19.37 seconds. Ustianowski cut 1.94 seconds from his time at Eleva-Strum a week earlier.
In the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Daniels won easily in 43.45 seconds, with Ustianowski finishing second in 47.36 seconds, down 0.45 seconds from a week ago.
Paul easily won the long jump competition, going 19 feet, 4.75 inches on his best jump, 14 inches ahead of runnerup Jake LaGrander of Stanley-Boyd. Gilman got 10 points from Chad Konsella and Sawyer Winger, who were third and fourth at 17-10 and 17-8.75, respectively. Damien Dums added a seventh-place point for Medford at 16-7.25 and Raider freshman Austin Crabb was eighth at 165.5.
Paul cleared the bar at 5-10 and that was good enough to win the high jump competition by 2 inches over Tomahawk’s Nathan Rosenmeier. Winger was fourth for Gilman at 5-6, Trevor Vick got two sixth-place points at 5-4 and Ustianowski tied Medford’s Hayden Koester for eighth at 5-2.
Earlier in the meet, Vick got Gilman’s lone win with a distance of 39-4 in the triple jump. Medford scored 17 points in that event, getting a second-place jump of 38-0.25 from senior Damien Dums, a third-place jump of 37-3.5 from Klapatauskas and a fifth-place distance of 35-10.25 from freshman Austin Crabb, who did the event for the first time. Dums improved by nearly 3 feet from his best indoor jump.
Koester won the 400-meter dash in 53.98 seconds, while Raider freshman Sawyer Hoops was third in 55.04 seconds and McAlpine was sixth for Gilman at 55.68 seconds. Pirates Logan Halida just missed scoring, taking eighth in 56.25 seconds, while an addition to the Raider roster, Hayden Spangler, was ninth at 56.6 seconds.
Medford’s Brandon Curtis won the 3,200-meter run in a personal-best 10:46.04. He turned it on late in the race and beat Antigo’s Rutger Busse by 9.9 seconds. Teammate Evan Pagel added a seventh-place point at 12:51.36.
Erich Moretz continued to improve in the shot put. The Medford senior won it at 45 feet even. Logan Langdon was ninth at 33-6.5 and Jonathan Bartnik was 11th at 33-1, improving by 3 feet. Langdon led Medford in the discus by taking fifth at 101-2, while Moretz was right behind him at 100-6. Gilman welcomed back its top thrower, Taydyn Angell. Easing his way back into competition following a shoulder injury at the end of the wrestling season, Angell was fourth at 101-9.
Medford started the day on the track by winning the 3,200-meter relay. Curtis, Anthony Seidel, Judah Wipf and Caleb Scoles won a good race against Marathon, with Scoles holding off Marathon’s last runner to give the Raiders a time of 9:15.75. Marathon came in at 9:17.1. Hoops, Scoles, Paxton Rothmeier and Koester easily won the meet-ending 1,600-meter relay in 3:42.72. Gilman’s team of McAlpine, Vick, Halida and Konsella was second in 3:49.15.
Sticking with relays, Medford’s team of Colton Long, Levi Zuleger, Dums and Daniels was third in the 800-meter race at 1:40.19, while Beck Mayrer, Klapatauskas, Jaden Thao and Alan Scheel were fifth in 1:44.14. Stanley-Boyd won in 1:32.88. Rothmeier, Ryker Hallam, Gage Losiewicz and Evan Paul were fourth in the 400meter race in 49.5 seconds, 0.3 seconds ahead of the fifth-place team of Long, Mayrer, Eric Paul and Zuleger. Stanley-Boyd won in 44.25 seconds.
Seidel was the runner-up for Medford in the 800-meter run, finishing in 2:18.42. Tomahawk’s Samuel Zastrow won in 2:05.39. Wipf (2:25.38), Ayden Tyznik (2:31.7) and Nevyn Gripentrog (2:34.83) were fifth, sixth and eighth for Medford. Gilman’s Mitchell Moran (2:36.69) was ninth. Evan Paul added a third-place time of 24.05 seconds in the 200-meter dash, while Konsella and McAlpine tied for fourth at 25.05 seconds and Winger was seventh at 25.21 seconds.
Medford freshman Angus Hamland took fourth in the 1,600-meter run at 5:14.19, while Tyznik (5:31.19) and Pagel (5:38.62) were eighth and 10th. Rothmeier was third in the 100-meter dash at 12.22 seconds, while Koester (12.25), Hoops (12.32) and Konsella (12.4) were fifth, seventh and eighth.
Losiewicz was another notable athlete making a return from injury. The Medford senior placed fourth in the pole vault competition by clearing 11 feet. Lavin was seventh at 9-6, Klapatauskas was eighth at 9 feet and Axel Brushaber was 11th at 8 feet.
Girls highlights
Relays and field events were highscoring places for Medford and Gilman in Tuesday’s girls meet, while the Raiders also got 18 points from Lindsay Kahn in distance races and Gilman got 16 points from Claire Drier in the hurdles.
Kahn took the 800-meter run in 2:39.18, holding off Great Northern Conference rival Alli Palmer of Tomahawk by 1.65 seconds. Ella Dassow got the sixthplace points for the Raiders at 2:53.77 and Willow Dassow was ninth at 2:59.11. Earlier, Kahn placed second in the 1,600meter run at 5:58.18. Antigo’s Lillian L’ Esperance ran away with that win in 5:31.34, while Medford senior Carly Koski got the seventh-place point at 6:42.42. Koski later took fourth in the 3,200-meter run at 15:11.25.
Medford’s team of Ella Dassow, Adalyn Dittrich, Willow Dassow and Autumn Cooley won the 3,200-meter relay in 11:42.86, beating Stanley-Boyd by 4.47 seconds.
Gilman got two high relay finishes. The 800-meter team of Patricia Kloss, Shae Drier, Addison Vick and Claire Drier sprinted past Abbotsford by 0.25 seconds and posted a winning time of 1:56.71. Medford’s combination of Jordyn Grant, Cora Semrau, Emily Kiselicka and Alexis Zuleger was fourth in 2:04. The Pirates’ young combination of Kennedy Buske, Shae Drier, Rilla Syryczuk and Aspen Person came up just short in the 400meter relay with its time of 57.55 seconds. Only Northland Pines (54.59) was better. Medford’s Grant, Semrau, Maria Valverde Bautista and Zuleger took fourth in 58.92 seconds.
Aliyah Pilgrim, Zuleger, Willow Dassow and Avery Losiewicz ended the meet with a third-place time of 4:42.19 in the 1,600meter relay. Buske, Shae Drier, Kyra Rabuck and Ava Webster were sixth at 4:56.02 in a race won by Antigo in 4:36.52.
Grant, a freshman, won the triple jump competition for Medford with a seasonbest jump of 32-5.75 that beat Tomahawk’s Siennah Calkins by 4.5 inches. Vick was fourth for Gilman at a season-best 31-2.75 and Kloss was eighth at 26-4. Vick, though, won the girls high jump competition as she hit 4-8, good enough to beat Lakeland’s Haidyn Pfannerstill and Stanley-Boyd’s Grace Schmidt by 2 inches. Webster cleared 4 feet to take seventh, just ahead of Medford’s Cooley (4-0) and Semrau (310). Vick also took third in the long jump at 14-5, 1.5 inches ahead of Claire Drier. Grant was ninth at 11-10.75.
Avery Losiewicz was the girls pole vault champion, clearing the bar at 9 feet. She won the tiebreaker over Tomahawk’s Alicia Voermans. Dittrich was eighth at 7 feet. Raider Rivalee Stokes scored 12 points. She almost won the discus with her best throw sailing 106-7, a foot behind Abbotsford’s Margo Pogodzinski. Syryczuk was 10th for Gilman at 63-5. Syryczuk did her best work in the shot put, taking third at a personal-best 30-3, while Stokes was fourth at a personal-best 29-4 and Raider Bridget Wesle was fifth at 269.
Back on the track, Claire Drier was the second-best hurdler in the meet. In the 100-meter highs, her time of 17.84 seconds was beaten only by Stanley-Boyd’s Lula Chwala (17.75), while Losiewicz took third (17.88) while running this race for the first time. Semrau added a seventh-place point (21.18). Chwala won the 300-meter lows as well at 50.92 seconds, just a tenth ahead of Drier, while Losiewicz was third in her more familiar race at 51.35 seconds and Dittrich (1:03.27) was ninth.
Pilgrim scored twice for the Raiders in sprints. She was second in the 400-meter dash at 1:06.15 behind Tomahawk’s Elise Gibeault (1:01.97). Gilman’s Brynn Komanec (1:10.35), Webster (1:10.41) and Rabuck (1:16.72) were fourth, fifth and seventh. Pilgrim placed fourth in the 200meter dash at 29.42 seconds. Kloss got the sixth-place points at 30.19 seconds, while Komanec (31.13) and Rabuck (32.55) were eighth and ninth.
Gilman is back at it Friday, competing at Stanley-Boyd, a meet that also includes Rib Lake. Medford has added a meet for today, Thursday, at Bruce.
With teammates Sawyer Winger, Logan Halida, Chad Konsella and Max Ustianowski watching, Gilman’s Trevor Vick flies toward the sand at the end of a triple jump attempt at Tuesday’s Medford Invitational. Vick won the event. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
