PHILLIPS INVITATIONAL - Both Rib Lake teams 4th at Phillips

PHILLIPS INVITATIONAL

The regular season’s home stretch for Rib Lake’s track and field team started Thursday with a solid team effort at the seven-team Phillips Invitational.

Both teams took fourth place in their respective sides of the meet. The boys held back somewhat with their lineup for this meet with a meet in Merrill on top the next night.

Still, Rib Lake scored 95 points to easily outscore Prentice (36), Mellen (23) and Butternut (3) in the boys team standings. Chequamegon had no trouble winning the meet with 193 points, while Hurley (147.5) and Phillips (121.5) earned second and third.

The Redmen captured wins in four events. Connor and Seamus Highfill were each responsible for one with personalrecord times in distance events. Connor, a senior, blew away his previous best in the 3,200-meter run by 16.12 seconds with a winning time of 11:08.63. He was unchallenged in the race. Rib Lake’s Jackson Schutt grabbed third at 11:38.97, 7.59 seconds behind runner-up Matthew Hirteiter of Chequamegon. Seamus, a sophomore, dropped 4.77 seconds in the 800-meter run and won that in 2:09.6, 6.62 seconds ahead of Josh Edwards from Phillips.

Gavin Zondlo lowered his time by 0.6 seconds and won the 110-meter high hurdles in 19.56, just 0.01 seconds ahead of Winter Edberg of Chequamegon. Rib Lake’s Kylan Bartelt was fourth at a personal-best 20.77 seconds. Zondlo later added a sixth-place time of 51.89 seconds in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles.

Jed Henderson was Rib Lake’s fourth winner, leading a high-scoring jump event for the Redmen. He cleared 6 feet to finish 2 inches ahead of Chequamegon’s Cooper Michalski. Rib Lake’s David Pichea cleared 5-4, beating his previous best by 4 inches, to tie Hurley’s Logan Schilling for fourth place. Bartelt was sixth at 5-2, his best by 2 inches, and Dene Zuleger tied for seventh at 5 feet, tying his best jump of 2025. Combined, the Redmen scored 19 points in the event.

Zuleger added a sixth-place time of 5:15.96 in the 1,600-meter run, his best time by almost eight seconds, and he got eighth place in the long jump at 15-8, just ahead of teammates Gus Zuleger and Rylan Schaelzka-Lenz, who tied for ninth at 15-5.5. Kevin Head was 14th at 12-9.5.

Lawson Carlson extended his personal record in the discus to 96-3, which gave him fifth place, while Henderson took seventh at 93-2, his best throw of the spring. Carlson was 12th in the shot put at 30-9, while Chris Krause was 13th at 30-4. Riley Johnson scored three points by taking sixth in the triple jump at 30-10.75.

In the sprint relays, the team of Jack Regier, Seamus Highfill, Truman Smith and Kaleb Scott took second in the 400meter race at 48.54 seconds, 0.49 seconds behind Hurley, while Pichea, Schaelzka-Lenz, Henderson and Gus Zuleger were fourth at 50.68 seconds, 0.08 seconds ahead of Phillips. Johnson, Schaelzka-Lenz, Pichea and Zondlo took third in the 800-meter relay at 1:47.35, 0.29 seconds behind runner-up Hurley. Chequamegon won easily in 1:38.41.

Johnson (28.01), Jack Dananay (28.82), Head (28.99) and Jaden Briggs (37.98) were 10th, 11th, 12th and 18th in the 200-meter dash. Schaelzka-Lenz (13.65), Dananay (14.08), Head (14.45) and Briggs (18.37) were 10th, 14th, 16th and 17th in the 100-meter dash. Isaiah Hubbard (78-9) and Krause (67-9) were 13th and 17th in the discus.

Two winners

Emma Tlusty and Maddie Rademacher were Rib Lake’s event winners in Thursday’s girls meet as both placed multiple times.

Tlusty lowered her time to a seasonbest 17.69 in the 100-meter high hurdles and won the race by 1.51 seconds over Jaycee Pomeroy of Phillips. Pomeroy won the 300-meter hurdles in 53.9 seconds, while Tlusty got second in 55.46 seconds.

Rademacher’s win was a shared title in the high jump with Hurley’s Alexandra Tolemy. Both topped out at 5 feet to win by 4 inches over Chequamegon’s Sydnie Button. Rib Lake’s Hadassah Nelson tied for fifth place, clearing the bar at 4-4.

Rademacher also led Rib Lake in the long jump with a third-place distance of 14-3. Tlusty took fifth at 13-5, Roxy Goberville-Lopez was seventh at 13-0.5 and Ella Grzanna was eighth at 12-9 as the Redmen scored 13 points in that event. Avelyn Schutt added a jump of 11 feet that tied for 15th. The distances were season bests for Goberville-Lopez, Grzanna and Schutt.

Grzanna scored in two more events. She placed fifth with a personal-best time of 1:13.86 in the 400-meter dash and was eighth with a new best time of 33.06 seconds in the 200-meter dash. Maria Bisco (33.74), Lucia Nevarez (36.62) and Sydney Briggs (37.5) were 11th, 17th and 18th with personal-best times.

In the 100-meter dash, Rademacher (14.88) and Goberville-Lopez, with a new best 14.89 seconds, were just shy of scoring, taking ninth and 10th places. Grzanna was 13th with another seasonbest of 15.36 seconds. Bisco (16.27), Schutt (16.41), Nevarez (17.4) and Briggs (18.61) were 18th, 19th, 20th and 22nd.

The team of Goberville-Lopez, Schutt, Nelson and Rademacher ran the 400meter relay in 1:00.14, good for second behind Phillips (58.88) and ahead of Chequamegon (1:01.1) and Prentice (1:05.66). Goberville-Lopez, Schutt, Nelson and Tlusty were fourth in the 800meter relay at 2:07.62, well ahead of Prentice (2:18.21) and Chequamegon (2:21.21). Phillips won in 1:56.52.

Kylie Schmidtfranz took 10th in the shot put competition at 18-8 and 13th in the discus at an improved 48-6.

Phillips got by Chequamegon 196.5180.5 to win the girls meet. Hurley outscored Rib Lake 74.5-61.5 for third. Prentice scored 45 points to get past Butternut (40) and Mellen (39).