OTTO BACHER TRACK & FIELD - Strong efforts from Raiders, Redmen against good competition

OTTO BACHER TRACK & FIELD

Medford’s boys again were right with the teams they expect to battle for the Great Northern Conference championship next week, while the girls as well as Rib Lake’s team all posted some high individual placements Friday at Merrill’s annual Otto Bacher track and field Invitational.

Led by two wins and three secondplace finishes, the Raiders boys scored 90.5 points to place third out of 13 squads in the team standings, just behind GNC rival Mosinee (97). Wausau East ran away with the championship with 151.5 points. GNC reps Rhinelander (81) and Northland Pines (79) were fourth and fifth ahead of Newman Catholic (49).

The Rib Lake boys tied Tomahawk for seventh place with 35 points, led by Kaleb Scott’s victory in the 800-meter run. Medford’s girls tied for fifth with 60 points and Rib Lake’s girls were 11th out of 12 scoring teams with 17.5 points. The GNC’s Rhinelander (144) and Tomahawk (125.5) were the top scoring girls teams.

Boys meet

Scott, a junior, played a major role in Rib Lake’s 35 points in the boys meet. He won the 800-meter run in 2:04.74, finishing comfortably ahead of Nolan Waltz of Three Lakes-Phelps (2:07.04) and Grayson Best of Wausau East (2:07.51). Rib Lake’s Truman Smith scored two points by taking seventh in 2:14.25 and Medford senior Anthony Seidel got the eighth-place point at a season-best 2:14.82.

Scott got an eighth-place point in the 1,600-meter run at 4:57.99, while Medford’s Brandon Curtis blew away his previous personal record, finishing seventh in 4:53.57. Scott anchored Rib Lake’s 3,200-meter relay team, which took second in 8:35.92, finishing behind Rhinelander (8:26.5) and well ahead of third-place Tomahawk (8:47). Jack Regier, Smith and Connor Highfill filled out Rib Lake’s team. Medford’s Curtis, Judah Wipf, Caleb Scoles and Seidel were fifth in 9:00.53.

Regier added a third-place time of 10:29.31 in the 3,200-meter run, trailing Crandon’s Taylor Karcz (9:42.76) and Rhinelander’s Greyson Gremban (10:09.03). Medford’s Evan Pagel lowered his time by more than a minute to 11:40.56 and placed 11th. Rib Lake’s final scorer was Jed Henderson, who took second in the high jump at 5 feet, 10 inches. He was 2 inches behind winner Omar Ingram of Mosinee. Raider Evan Paul was sixth at 5-8.

Paul was part of both of Medford’s wins in the meet. He took the triple jump competition and got beyond 40 feet in doing so for the second time this spring. His distance of 40-1.25 beat Mosinee’s Spencer Lemke by 3.25 inches. Raider Damien Dums was seventh at 37-10 and Luke Klapatauskas was 10th at 36-6. Paul placed a third time in the 200-meter dash, taking third there in a personal-best 23.41 seconds, while Scoles was fifth in 23.75 seconds, also a personal best. Newman Nolyn Lindner won in 22.71 seconds.

The 1,600-meter relay team of Sawyer Hoops, Paul, Hayden Koester and Paxton Rothmeier finished the meet with a solid win, finishing in 3:34.56, 3.06 seconds ahead of Newman Catholic. That group cut more than five seconds off its time from the previous meet. From that group, Koester added a third-place and personalbest time of 53.39 seconds in the 400meter dash, while Raider Hayden Spangler lowered his time to 55.06 seconds and took sixth and Hoops was ninth at 55.56 seconds. Rothmeier got the eighth-place point in the 100-meter dash final at 11.96 seconds. He was 0.03 seconds faster in the preliminaries.

Junior Will Daniels had a big night, contributing to all of Medford’s runner-up placements. Two came in the hurdles. He ran the 110-meter high hurdles in 16.68 seconds, 0.15 seconds behind Wausau East’s Parker Schmitt, while Klapatauskas got fifth in 18.73 seconds and Rib Lake’s Gavin Zondlo was ninth (20.25). Daniels added a season-best time of 42.68 seconds in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, 1.2 seconds behind Schmitt. Klapatauskas was fourth, lowering his time to 45.39 seconds.

Daniels, Levi Zuleger, Rothmeier and Scoles pushed Mosinee to the finish in the 800-meter relay, finishing in 1:36.7, 0.75 seconds behind the Indians. Rib Lake’s team of Riley Johnson, Rylan Schaelzka-Lenz, David Pichea and Zondlo was 10th in 1:48.26. Medford’s Colton Long, Beck Mayrer, Zuleger and Klapatauskas were ninth in the 400-meter relay (48.93), while Rib Lake’s Pichea, Schaelzka-Lenz, Henderson and Gus Zuleger were 11th at 50.83 seconds.

Rounding out Medford’s scoring, Gage Losiewicz cleared 11-6 in the pole vault to tie Wausau East’s Peyton Nest for fourth place. Thomas Lowe of East won at 13 feet, followed by Morgan DePuydt (12-6) and Mason Minaudo (12 feet) of Northland Pines. Medford’s Jordan Lavin tied for ninth, clearing a personal-best 10 feet. Erich Moretz got the eighth-place point in the shot put at 41-9.75. Logan Langdon was one spot shy in the discus, tying for ninth at 111-4.

Girls meet

Medford’s Avery Losiewicz scored in all four of her events to lead local efforts in Friday’s girls meet.

The sophomore reached a new height in the pole vault, clearing 9-6 to place second in that event, won by Rhinelander’s Macy Myers at 10-6. Losiewicz got second over Tomahawk’s Alicia Voermans and East’s Elsa Oestreich, who also hit 9-6.

Losiewicz was third in the 300-meter hurdles at a season-best 50.08 seconds, while Rib Lake’s Emma Tlusty got the eighth-place point at 54.8 seconds, her season best. Those two battled it out in the 100-meter high hurdles. Losiewicz was timed a 17.15 seconds, while Tlusty was at 17.39 seconds in the preliminaries, good for second and third. In the final, Tlusty got the edge, finishing in 17.19 seconds, 0.03 seconds ahead of Losiewicz. They got second and third behind Rhinelander’s Aila Bergman (16.31).

Losiewicz’s final points came with a seventh-place throw of 27-4.5 in the shot put, just behind teammate Rivalee Stokes, who went 27-8.25. Stokes was the runnerup in the discus with a throw of 105-11. Rhinelander’s Libbey Buchmann was the only one better at 120-8. Stokes added a fifth-place time of 13.63 seconds in the 100-meter dash final. She was a hundredth of a second faster in the prelims and had the third-best time. Raider Jordyn Grant was 11th in the preliminaries at 14.36 seconds and 13th in the 200-meter dash at 29.75 seconds.

Grant was a solid fourth in the triple jump competition with her best effort carrying 30-10.5. She was 14.5 inches behind winner Siennah Calkins of Tomahawk. Ella Dassow took off a big chunk of time in the 800-meter run, taking fifth in 2:39.63, while Willow Dassow was 12th at 2:46.84.

Ella Dassow, Carly Koski, Willow Dassow and Autumn Cooley placed third in the 3,200-meter relay at 11:09.7, trailing East (10:38.64) and Tomahawk (10:44.82). The Raiders’ 1,600-meter team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Cooley, Willow Dassow and Alexis Zuleger was fifth in 4:33. Rhinelander won in 4:18.2. Pilgrim tacked on a fifth-place time of 1:04.45 in the 400-meter dash, while Cooley was 11th at 1:08.09.

Rib Lake’s Maddie Rademacher cleared 4-8 to tie Tomahawk’s Ellie Micke for fourth place in the high jump competition and she was sixth in the long jump at 148.5. Tlusty took 10th at a season-best 143.75. Rib Lake’s last point was earned by the 400-meter relay team of Roxy Goberville-Lopez, Avelyn Schutt, Hadassah Nelson and Rademacher, who took eighth in 59.61 seconds. Tomahawk won in 52.82 seconds.