MEDFORD CROSS COUNTRY - Girls get the win in sectional preview meet
The Medford Raiders were led by a couple of personal-best performances, included a runaway winning run from Lindsay Kahn that helped lead them to the girls team championship at Saturday’s Merrill Cross Country Invitational.
Competing against a field of Great Northern Conference rivals on an unseasonably warm late September morning, Medford edged Tomahawk 33-35 to take home the team trophy, putting its top six finishers among the first 14 to cross the finish line in a varsity race of 38 competitors.
Once Kahn pulled away from the pack a couple hundred meters in, it was all over as she finished in 19:30.88, winning by almost 1:53 over Lakeland’s Emerson Rubo.
“It felt great today,” Kahn said. “You only have so many times where you have that great feeling and that was today.”
Rubo and Addison Eggen, Lakeland’s only entrants, finished in second and third at 20:53.32 and 21:22.62. Then three Tomahawk Hatchets came in, led by Lydia Shaney’s fourth-place time of 21:35.29.
Medford seniors Morgan Liske and Mallory Richter finished seventh and eighth with times of 22:19.68 and 22:53.16 to put the team race in the hands of Medford’s and Tomahawk’s fourth and fifth runners. Greta Seidel, Esmeralda Anderson and Kayla Daniels took care of that, finishing right behind Tomahawk’s fourth in 12th, 13th and 14th place. Seidel finished in 23:12.54, just a shade off her season-best, Anderson was in Medford’s fourth position for most of the race and lowered her time to a season-best 23:16.03 and Daniels was right at her seasonbest pace at 23:27.6.
Freshman Kyra Scheithauer was Medford’s seventh finisher. She placed 22nd in 25:22.12.
The win capped a big week for Kahn, who was coming off a fourth-place finish at the Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota on Sept. 20.
“That’s my second favorite course,” Kahn said. “You can get out and you have such a big crowd, like a college meet. You get to see the competitiveness. You’re helping each other out just to get up there. It’s just a lot of fun, a nice experience to have.”
The Merrill course might yet become one of the senior’s favorites, especially if she and the team do well there on Oct. 24 when Merrill hosts the WIAA Division 2 sectional meet.
“It was a really nice course,” Kahn said. “Typically I don’t like flat courses. Northland Pines that is my favorite, but this one actually felt great. I’m really looking forward to running it when it’s a little bit colder for sectionals. It’s going to be great. There were a lot of turns so next time I’ll be able to use those and take down that time instead of cutting it too short or doing it too long.”
As the season enters its last month, Kahn said she’s zeroing in on two goals.
“I really want to make it to state and get in that 19(minute) range,” she said. “That’s my main goal. If the team can make it (to state) too, that’d be awesome.”
Antigo was a distant third in the team standings with 94 points. Merrill had 97, Mosinee had 112 and Northland Pines had 131.
For the fifth straight meet, senior Evan Pagel was Medford’s leader in the boys and he did by cracking the 19-minute barrier for the first time at 18:58.38. That put him ninth in a field of 47 varsity runners and 6.2 seconds ahead of the next runner, Joe Zastrow of Tomahawk.
The rest of Medford’s runners stuck to a tight pack for much of the race. The rest of the team’s scorers filled four of the five spots between 20th and 24th place.
Sophomores Ace Arndt and Corbyn Radlinger were 0.03 seconds apart at the finish line with Arndt taking 20th in a season-best 19:39.64. After Tomahawk’s Karson Hanse took 22nd in 20:04.05, Medford’s Peyton Ried and Nevyn Gripentrog were next at 20:04.99 and 20:07.56.
Will Daniels then came in right behind those four teammates, placing 25th in 20:08.61. Angus Hamlund was 40th, coming in at a season-best 21:26.63.
It all added up to a fourth-place finish for the boys, who compiled 87 team points. Lakeland easily won the meet with 22 points, followed by Mosinee (61) and Tomahawk (68). Northland Pines (121) and Antigo (135) were fifth and sixth while Merrill did not field a scoring squad. Neither did the lone non-GNC team at the meet, Faith Christian Academy.
Lakeland’s Charlie Ernst was the individual champion with a time of 17:52.25, just ahead of fellow T-Birds Brayden Kelley (17:54.71). Ethan Miller of Northland Pines was third in 17:56.18.
Medford’s Isabella Leischer placed fifth in a seasonbest 30:18.42 and Lauren Stark was seventh in 32:23.56 in the girls JV standings.
The Medford Invitational is next on the schedule today, Thursday, and will be held on the home course located on the north side of the high school property. The middle school race kicks things off at 4:30 p.m., followed by the boys varsity race at 5 p.m.
Medford will also run at Northland Pines on Tuesday.
