Raiders, Hawks run with some of state’s best at Smiley Invite

SMILEY CC INVITATIONAL

Meredith Richter led for a good chunk of the girls race, Tanner Hraby and Josh Clark had top 10 finishes in their divisions and the Medford girls team earned a solid second-place finish, highlighting the Raiders’ morning at the 66th annual Bill Smiley Invitational hosted by Wausau East.

In the largest and, by far, the most competitive meet the Raiders have been involved in this fall, Medford was placed in Division 1 competition with some of Wisconsin’s best programs. In all, 26 schools were part of the Division 1 races with a Large and Small divisional split at 13 teams each.

Medford’s girls saw their unbeaten run through the first half of the season end with their second-place finish behind Waunakee in the Division 1 Small standings, but they knew going into the meet the Warriors would be tough to catch. Waunakee was the divisional champion with 30 points, while Medford had 78. The Raiders beat solid programs from DeForest (96), Shawano (99) and Pulaski (119) to earn second place.

Overall in Division 1, Medford finished a solid sixth with 188 points behind Waunakee (61), Kaukauna (70), Madison West (132), Eau Claire Memorial (170) and De Pere (186). DeForest (216) and Stevens Point (221) were seventh and eighth.

In the Sept. 12 Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association state rankings, Waunakee was 13th in Division 1, while Medford was fifth in Division 2.

Saturday’s Smiley race the second on Wausau East’s new course and several Raiders, both boys and girls, were faster on the course the second time around.

Richter was one of those runners taking a step forward. Her time of 19:40.4 just missed her best of the season and was about 50 seconds faster than the 2021 Smiley race. She was third overall in Division 1, just behind Hope Dragseth of De Pere (19:06.4) and Cianna Wipperfurth of Waunakee (19:39.4), and second in the Small Division behind Wipperfurth.

Bjorg Risa pushed her way up to 16th in the Division 1 Small rankings –– which included 69 finishers –– with her season-best time of 21:20.2, and Ella Dassow had an outstanding race finishing 19th in a season-best 21:47.2 which was 1:10 faster than her 2021 Smiley race. Dassow led a string of four straight Raiders in the Small Division results. Ella Daniels was 20th in 21:52.1, coming in at 1:07 ahead of last year’s pace. Brooke Rudolph was the team’s fifth scorer in 21st place at 21:56.5 and Mallory Richter was 22nd in a season-best 22:02.8. Lindsay Kahn was the seventh Raider, taking 27th in 22:22.9.

Overall in Division 1, Risa was 35th out of 139 runners, Dassow was 49th, Daniels was 52nd, Rudolph was 55th, Mallory Richter was 56th and Kahn was 67th.

Medford’s varsity boys placed fifth in the Division 1 Small standings with 129 points. The Raiders trailed DeForest (66), River Falls (76), Waunakee (92) and Shawano (97) and got past Wausau East (146) and Lakeland (177) in the division. Overall in Division 1, the Raiders were 11th with 309 points, 25 points behind 10th-place Kaukauna. Stevens Point had just 45 points to comfortably outscore Eau Claire Memorial (89), De Pere (168), DeForest (175) and River Falls (205).

Hraby finished sixth out of 69 Small Division runners with his season-best time of 17:24.6 that beat his Smiley time from last year by 28 seconds. Clark took 10th in 17:51.5, an amazing 2:30 faster than last year. Their Great Northern Conference rival, Owen Clark of Lakeland, was the divisional champion at 16:49.1, ahead of Shawano’s Ethan Onesti (17:03.1) and Quin Andrews of River Falls (17:04.3).

Logan Gubser placed 29th in the division at 19:14.9, Nick Steliga was 33rd in 19:23.4, beating last year’s time by 1:26 and Lucas Borman was the fifth scorer in 55th place with a time of 20:51.2 that was a new personal best and beat his 2021 Smiley time by an incredible 4:12.

In their first Smiley races, Brandon Curtis was 65th in a season-best 22:40.7 and Cullen Jones was 67th in a season-best 23:20.5.

Overall in Division 1, Hraby placed 19th out of 153 finishers, Clark was 26th, Gubser was 71st, Steliga was 78th, Borman was 127th, Curtis was 147th and Jones was 150th. Aloysius Franzen of Stevens Point was the champion at 15:57.5, beating De Pere freshman Grady Lenn (16:10.2) and Sun Prairie West’s Mateo Alvarado Venegas (16:12.2).

Ervin Ulrich was the boys’ sole JV runner. He set a new personal-best time of 24:02.4 while placing 52nd in the Small Division and 180th overall out of 249 Division 1 runners.

There was one combined girls JV race with scoring also broken down into Division 1 and Divisions 2/3. Medford placed ninth as a team in Division 1 with 239 points and 10th overall with 243 points. Kaukauna was the Division 1 and overall champion.

In the Division 1 results, Morgan Liske led the Raiders by taking seventh out of 194 finishers in 22:18.7, her season-best time by 15 seconds. Lillie Gleichauf was 65th in a season-best 24:56.9, followed by teammate Riley Clark in a season-best 24:58.4. Esmeralda Anderson was 71st in a season-best 25:07.2, Kaeylnn Balciar dropped her time by over four minutes to 26:04.2 and placed 87th and Kylie Potvin was 112th in 27:18.1. There were 245 JV runners overall.

Medford has another giant meet next with the University of Minnesota Griak Invitational on Friday. The Gold and Maroon divisions of high school races start at 3 p.m.

Hawks there too

The Prentice-Rib Lake Hawks competed with runners in Divisions 2 and 3 at Saturday’s Smiley Invitational.

In varsity boys competition, the Hawks placed seventh out of nine scoring teams in Division 3 with 154 points, beating Edgar (204) and Spencer (264). Stevens Point Pacelli was the division champion with 33 points, well ahead of Albany (75), Athens (80) and Iola-Scandinavia (93).

The Hawks were 17th out of 23 scoring teams overall in the Division 2/3 race with 401 points, well ahead of 18th-place Wittenberg-Birnamwood (518). Shorewood won the combined race results with 71 points, just ahead of West Salem (83), a D2 sectional opponent for Medford later in the fall, Pacelli (99) and Kiel (125).

Senior Ryan Buehler led Prentice-Rib Lake by taking 22nd out of 71 Division 3 runners with a time of 19:09.2. Freshman Kaleb Scott was 24th in 19:20.5. Buehler was 1:06 faster than he was in the 2021 Smiley race.

Freshman Evan Lord was 37th in Division 3 at 20:33.7, Matthew Schmidt was 44th in 21:14.5 and senior Ben Petersen was 50th at 21:38.7. Elijah Scott was 52nd in 21:47.8, Eliah Harding was 57th in his first Smiley in a time of 22:09.7 and Nolan Sarkkinen was 58th in 22:11.1.

Overall in the D2/3 race, Buehler was 58th out of 165 finishers, Kaleb Scott was 60th, Lord was 89th, Schmidt was 105th, Petersen was 122nd, Elijah Scott was 125th, Harding was 135th and Sarkkinen was 136th.

Charlie Vater of Iola-Scandinavia was the Division 3 and overall champion in 16:33.6, just ahead of Athens standout Connor Sheahan (16:45.5) and Pacelli’s Adam Eiden (16:49.3).

The Hawks had just four girls in that varsity race, meaning they had no team score. Freshman Kylie Orysen led the way by taking 11th out of 53 Division 3 finishers and 41st overall out of 135 runners in 23:02.7. Emma Scott was 42nd and 118th in 30:14, Amy Espinoza was 52nd and 129th in 32:07.5 and team newcomer, Rib Lake track standout Olivia Lopez, debuted by taking 49th and 126th in 31:52.1.

Individually, Rosholt’s Sophia Bablitch was the Division 3 champion at 20:13.7, well ahead of Albany’s McKThe enna Broughton (20:48.6) and Ava Ahnen (21:12.4). Nora Gremban of Northland Pines blew away the field as the overall and Division 2 champion at 18:46.5. Bablitch was second overall and freshman Rory Salveson of Wittenberg- Birnamwood was third in 20:21.8. Albany edged Rosholt 48-53 to win the Division 3 team title while Marathon got by Edgar 64-69 for third. Abbotsford was fifth with 121 points. Kiel was the winner of the combined standings with 76 points, ahead of West Salem (100), Little Chute (149) and Tomahawk (175).

Prentice-Rib Lake’s Connor Highfill was 10th out of 21 Division 3 JV runners and 56th overall out of 86 Division 2 and 3 runners in 23:42.6, about 47 seconds faster than last year. Nick Nikkila was 20th and 85th in 33:22.

The Hawks were at Barron Tuesday and are scheduled to attend the Spencer Invitational at Frey Field today, Thursday, as well as Saturday’s Flambeau Invitational.

Medford’s Tanner Hraby tries to hold his spot aheadof two Stevens Point runners about a mile into Saturday’s Division 1 boys race at Wausau East.JEREMY MAYO/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS