Medford boys win this time, while girls take 3rd at Auburndale

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

Three days after Medford’s girls team won the Medford Invite, it was the boys’ turn to claim a meet championship Friday when the Raiders captured first place in Friday’s 13-team Auburndale Invitational.

Riding four event victories and two second-place finishes, Medford scored 126.5 points to push past Stratford by a 10-point margin in Friday’s meet. It was a two-team race as Newman Catholic finished a distant third with 78.5 points, Neillsville was fourth with 70.5 and Auburndale placed fifth with 51.

Relay races accounted for a good chunk of Medford’s scoring as the four teams combined for 32 points.

The 1,600-meter team of Caleb Scoles, Silas Wipf, Josh Clark and Gage Losiewicz closed the meet by beating Stratford by 3.11 seconds and winning its race in 3:43.25, Medford’s fastest outdoor time so far in three meets. Anakin Stokes, Cory Lindahl, Paxton Rothmeier and Charlie Kleist won the 800-meter relay in 1:34.41, also its best time of the season so far and 1.27 seconds ahead of second-place Wisconsin Rapids Assumption.

The 400-meter team of Stokes, Evan Paul, Itsael Medina and Kleist took third in an improved 46.23 seconds, which trailed Stratford (44.67) and Assumption (45.38) but beat seven other squads. The 3,200-meter team of Lucas Borman, Adyn Gripentrog, Vincent Seidel and Owen Stockwell was third in 9:09.15, ahead of Auburndale’s B team (9:28.35) and Newman (10:42.35) but behind Stratford (8:46.36) and Auburndale A (8:58.23).

The 800-meter run was a key individual event for Medford with Wipf winning in 2:04.99 and Clark right behind him in 2:05.26 to give the Raiders 18 points. Stockwell improved his time to 2:20.63 and placed 11th. Losiewicz got Medford’s other win, clearing 12 feet, 6 inches to tie his best mark so far this spring and win the pole vault by 2 feet over Neillsville’s Will Drinka.

Paul placed in all three of the jumps for Medford, led by third-place finishes in the long and triple jumps. In the long jump, Paul went 18-8 and had teammate Jose Herrera right behind him in fourth place at 18-5, tied with Abbotsford’s Christian Fuentes. Stockwell long jumped for the first time and was 13th at 16-6. In the triple jump, Paul went 38-3 for a new personal best and was 9 inches behind winner Thomas Bates of Newman Catholic. Stockwell was fifth at 37-11, also a new personal best. Paul cleared 5-6 in the high jump and tied Newman’s Liam McCarty for sixth place.

Kleist’s also scored in a field event, placing sixth while competing in the shot put for the first time. His best throw went 40-3.5 for the best distance for a Raider this spring. Will Haavisto was 12th with his best toss of the spring at 36-4.25.

The 200-meter dash was another key event for Medford with Stokes placing second in 23.57 seconds and Kleist taking third in 23.65 seconds. They trailed Jett Schoenherr of Stratford, who finished in 22.67 seconds. Herrera gave Medford another point by taking eighth in 24.39 seconds and Scoles wasn’t far behind, tying for 11th place at 24.64 seconds. Herrera added 1.5 points by tying Stratford’s Austin O’Neil for seventh place in the 100-meter dash at 12.27 seconds. Schoenherr won in 11.31 seconds. Lindahl took ninth for Medford in 12.29 seconds and Medina was 12th at 12.43 seconds.

Wipf added to a solid night by finishing fourth in the 1,600-meter run with his time 5:00.32 in the 1,600-meter run, while Ervin Ulrich tacked on the eighth-place point at 5:27.74 and Borman was 10th at 5:31.7. Ulrich was seventh in the 3,200-meter race at a personal-best 11:50.04.

Freshman Will Daniels did well in both hurdles events, starting with a fifthplace time of 19.12 seconds in the 110-meter highs, just ahead of Rothmeier’s time of 19.15 seconds. Daniels’ fifth-place time of 46.21 seconds in the 300-meter intermediates was a season-best. Raider Hudson Briggs was 11th in 51.67 seconds.

Scoles (55.25) and Clark (55.53) combined for five points with their sixth- and seventh-place finishes in the 400-meter dash. Losiewicz was 0.12 seconds away from scoring, taking ninth in 55.87 seconds, while Herrera was 10th at 56.6 seconds.

Girls take third

Medford got two wins apiece from Meredith Richter and Jaylin Machon while finishing third in Friday’s team standings with 87 points. Newman Catholic did just enough to get by Loyal 106104 and win the meet. The Raiders were just ahead of Assumption (83), Stratford (75) and Abbotsford (73.5).

Richter’s first win came in the 1,600-meter run, where she wasn’t really pushed and won handily by more than 34 seconds in 5:30.25. Raider Ella Dassow added three sixth-place points in 6:24.13. Richter then won the 800-meter run in 2:31.05, beating Assumption’s Brooklyn Schoenick (2:36.33) and Baylee Hartjes (2:43.4). Raider Ella Daniels got fifth with her time of 2:45.24. Adding to Medford’s distance success, freshman Lindsay Kahn made a push toward a win in the 3,200-meter run, falling just shy with her time of 12:28.85, which was easily her best so far this spring. She trailed Stratford’s Kayla Casperson by 1.99 seconds.

Machon got a good win in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 17.66 seconds that beat a strong athlete from Three Lakes-Phelps, Kallie Volk, by 0.14 seconds. She also continued to succeed in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet to win by tiebreaker over Loyal’s Sheila Tellock.

Two relay teams got eight runner-up points. The 3,200-meter team of Daniels, Lillie Gleichauf, Dassow and Kahn started the meet by finishing in 11:03.34, easily beating Loyal (12:50.25) and Neillsville (14:13.64). Stratford won in 10:51.32. The 1,600-meter team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Gleichauf, Bryn Fronk and Richter was clocked at 4:26.01 to trail Newman (4:23.57) but solidly beat third-place Stratford (4:33.34). Gleichauf also scored for Medford in the 400-meter dash, placing seventh in 1:08.79.

The 400-meter team of Lindsey Klapatauskas, Alexis Zuleger, Pilgrim and Machon was fifth in 54.69 seconds in a race won by Loyal in 51.19 seconds. The 800-meter team of Brenley Beran, Zuleger, Autumn Cooley and Riley Clark was eighth in 2:01.16.

Rivalee Stokes improved in the discus competition, getting out to 88-1, which was good for sixth place. Stacy Stolp was sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 30-4, while Klapatauskas fell 2.5 inches shy of scoring with a ninth-place jump of 30 feet even. Klapatauskas just missed in the shot put too, taking ninth at 28-5.75, an inch behind eighth-place finisher Lilly Hasenohrl of Auburndale. Stokes was 16th at a season-best 26-6 and Rachel Wesle was 18th at 25-3.5.

Daniels was seventh in the long jump at 14-1, while Stolp was 12th at 13-5.25.

Pilgrim was 10th in the 200-meter dash at 29.72 seconds, followed by Clark in 11th place (30.2), Beran in 12th (30.21) and Stolp in 16th (30.38). Amy Espinoza was 13th in the 400-meter dash at 1:16.68 and Ashey Hernandez was 16th (1:18.41). Espinoza added a 13th-place finish in the 800 at 3:09.13. Adalyn Dittrich was 11th in the 300-meter hurdles at 59.93 seconds. Cooley tied for 14th in the high jump at 4 feet.

Medford is back in action Friday at Merrill’s Otto Bacher Invitational, which starts at 5 p.m. The Raiders will send their varsity athletes to Colby and their JV athletes to Marathon on Tuesday.