Several head to Osceola aiming to continue recent momentum
WIAA DIV. 2 MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD REGIONAL
At the time of the season where peak performance is the goal and, often times, a necessity, the Medford Raiders had several examples of those kinds of efforts in Monday’s WIAA Division 2 track and field regional meet held at Raider Field.
The girls placed third out of nine teams and the boys were fifth, but for most squads, the regional isn’t so much about team standings as it is extending the season for as many athletes as possible.
In Medford’s case, the Raiders advanced 12 girls entries and eight boys entries to the WIAA Division 2 Osceola sectional, scheduled for today, Thursday. There, the top four finishers in each event will earn spots in the Division 2 state championships, set for Friday, June 25 at UW-La Crosse.
“It’s awesome when they start to peak at the right time,” Medford head coach Shawn Sullivan said as Monday’s meet ended. “That’s when it’s really fun and you really see a lot of that happening. We had that in the 100, the 200, the 4x100, the 4x200, pole vault, the jumps. Jack Tlusty PR’d in the two-mile and earned his spot on the bus. He was pretty excited about that. There were a lot of great things that happened today.”
The girls sectional entries include nine individual berths and three relays, while the boys got one relay through and seven individual entries.
The boys got two of those in one event as Joe Sullivan won the 3,200-meter run and the aforementioned Tlusty was fourth. Making sure he moved on, Sullivan didn’t push as hard as he did in last week’s Great Northern Conference meet when he nearly broke the 10-minute barrier, but he still won in 10:38.4, beating Tomahawk’s Drew Bolder by 3.1 seconds and Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Tommy Bruski by 4.3 seconds. Tlusty, a first-year senior in the program, shined with his time of 11:35.8, a personal-best by almost 25 seconds.
Sullivan also won the 1,600-meter run in 4:46.08, again not his fastest time, but easily good enough to move on. Bolder was 9.98 seconds behind. Medford sophomore Vincent Seidel had a fine race, lowering his time by almost 14 seconds to 5:00.25, which left him one spot and 4.94 seconds shy of advancing.
Senior Ty Baker continued his run toward a potential state berth in the triple jump, extending his personal record to 42 feet, 1.5 inches on Monday. That was good for second place behind Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Simon Schairer (42-7.75). Jack Gjovick of Northland Pines (41-10.5) and Mike Karlen of Stanley-Boyd (41-10) also advanced from a competitive field that saw six jumpers get past 40 feet. Josh Clark (33-11.5) and Seidel (33-0) were 13th and 14th for Medford. Baker added a seventh-place finish in the long jump at 18-5.75, while teammates Cory Lindahl (17-7) and Owen Wipf (16-7.25) were ninth and 11th.
Wipf, another first-year senior, advanced in the 400-meter dash by taking fourth in a personal-best 55.02 seconds, 1.81 seconds ahead of Mosinee’s Logan Cychosz. Clark was seventh at 1:03.3.
Senior Tyler Kapitz advanced with a fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash final with his time of 24.08 seconds, 0.73 seconds ahead of Patrick Stemper of Northland Pines. Cooper Nichols of Stanley- Boyd won in 23.81 seconds. Kapitz was even faster in the preliminaries at 23.99 seconds.
Junior Jake Seifert will make his first sectional appearance thanks to his fourth-place throw of 110 feet in the discus, a personal-best by 4 inches. Seifert also placed sixth in the shot put at 37-7.
Medford’s 800-meter relay team of Cole Dassow, Lindahl, Carson Church and Kapitz moved on with a second-place time of 1:37.84, which trailed Lakeland by 2.15 seconds. The Raiders were comfortably ahead of sectional qualifiers Northland Pines (1:40.8) and Antigo (1:41.66).
The 1,600-meter team of Church, Lindahl, Wipf and Kapitz had a near-miss, taking fifth in 3:43.85, 2.2 seconds behind fourth-place Antigo.
Medford only entered two of the four boys relays and three of the girls relays, showing the challenge of putting together a post-season lineup with the limited numbers the Raiders had this spring.
“It is hard,” Sullivan said. “You have to look at what you have here at regionals and what you’re going to run into at sectionals and who is going to run where. You’re making assumptions. You’re always second-guessing yourself. And injuries come up that just happen. We made some changes on the fly on that. It’s always fluid.”
Elsewhere for the boys, Logan Kawa was eighth by clearing 9 feet in the pole vault, while Jude Stark and Adam Kowalski tied for 10th at 8-6, personal bests for both, and Lindahl (12.25) and Dassow (15.05) were eighth and ninth in the 100-meter dash final. Both were faster in the prelims, with Dassow timed at 12.18 seconds, Lindahl at 12.23 seconds Lucas Borman was 14th at 12.65 seconds. Clark was 11th in the 800-meter run at 2:30.47.
Boys team scores were: 1. Stanley-Boyd, 107.33; 2. Lakeland, 95; 3. Northland Pines, 94.33; 4. Mosinee, 84; 5. Medford, 73; 6. Tomahawk, 72.33; 7. Antigo and Stratford, 56; 9. Wittenberg-Birnamwood, 30.
Solid day for girls
Relays have been a strong point for the Raider girls all spring and that continued on Monday with two wins and a runnerup finish in the three races they entered.
With just four teams, the 3,200-meter entrants were all guaranteed of moving on as long as they finished, but Medford’s Alexis Fleegel, Brooke Rudolph, Jennifer Kahn and Alicia Kawa did much more than that, winning with a time of 10:23.29 that was easily their season-best. They finished 7.38 seconds ahead of Lakeland.
Marissa Fronk, Sophie Brost, Jaylin Machon and Bryn Fronk impressed in the 400-meter relay, opening a wide margin and holding on for a win in 51.85 seconds, 0.78 seconds ahead of Antigo. Mosinee (53.44) and Lakeland (53.9) also advanced. Not long before that, the 800-meter team of Marissa Fronk, Brost, Karli Higgins and Bryn Fronk lowered its time to 1:49.07 and placed second behind Mosinee (1:47.31) and ahead of qualifi ers Tomahawk (1:54.1) and Northland Pines (1:56.89).
Individually, Kawa earned a regional championship in the 3,200-meter run with a personal-best time of 12:03.55 that blew away the rest of the field after Pines star Nora Gremban withdrew. Runnerup Rachel Rae Reilly of Tomahawk was 37.44 seconds behind.
Machon, a freshman, continued her late-season surge, setting personal records in the 100-meter high hurdles and pole vault that earned second place in both events. Her time in the hurdles final was 17.98 seconds, just 0.42 seconds behind winner Jalynn Horacek of Wittenberg- Birnamwood. Brenley Beran, another freshman, placed eighth for Medford in 20.68 seconds and was a tick faster in the prelims at 20.58 seconds. Machon cleared 8-9 in the pole vault, well above her previous best of 8 feet and just 3 inches behind winner Olivia Wingo of Lakeland. Raider Ella Daniels cleared 7-6 to place fifth.
Kahn (2:32.23) and Fleegel (2:33.02) both moved on in the 800-meter run by taking third and fourth, respectively. Daniels added an 11th-place time of 2:54.44.
Bryn Fronk advanced by taking third in a competitive 200-meter final at 26.66 seconds. Marissa Fronk fell 0.03 seconds short in her season-best time of 26.81 seconds. Antigo’s MacKenzie Wissbroecker nudged her out of fourth in a race won by Mosinee’s Kate Fitzgerald (25.59). Rudolph set a personal-best time of 52.33 seconds in the 300-meter low hurdles, which was good for fourth and another race at Osceola.
Freshman Meredith Richter lowered her time to 1:02.57 and placed third in the 400-meter dash to qualify for Thursday’s meet. Raider Alyssa Brandner added an eighth-place time of 1:06.59 that was her best. Brost, a junior, advanced with a personal-best and fourth-place effort of 30-10.5 in the triple jump. Lindsey Klapatauskas was 12th at a personal-best 28-5 and Hannah Fleegel was 15th at 27-1.5. Brost was 0.04 seconds shy of advancing in the 100-meter dash with a final time of 13.63 seconds.
Higgins was seventh in the long jump at 14-8, while Beran was 12th at a personal- best 13-10.25 and Rudolph (13-0.75) was 14th; Alyssa Brandner was 11th (29.8) in the 200-meter dash prelims; Klapatauskas (14.36) was 12th in the 100-meter prelims and 14th in shot put at 23-7.75 and Lacey Brandner was 18th (51-8) in the discus and 20th (18-1.5) in the shot put.
The girls team standings were: 1. Mosinee, 126; 2. Wittenberg-Birnamwood, 108; 3. Medford, 102.5; 4. Antigo, 76.5; 5. Stanley-Boyd, 76; 6. Lakeland, 67; 7. Tomahawk, 44; 8. Stratford, 39; 9. Northland Pines, 36.
Moving on to Thursday, Sullivan said the sectional is always an exciting meet.
“It’s been a great season. It’s been a crazy season,” she said. “There have been a lot more challenges for all of the teams and coaches. We’ve overcome quite a bit to get to this point.
It’s going to be exciting for the kids, especially for some of these freshmen who are advancing and will get that feel for competing for top four at sectionals and making that trip to state. That’s pretty exciting. Some of those seniors that have gone before, they are bringing up the team and encouraging the other athletes. We’ve had a lot of great cheerleaders, a lot of great team support. It’s fun. We might not have a big group, but we sure have an active and a fun enthusiastic group. That’s made the season so fun.”
Medford’s Joe Sullivan takes an early lead and Jack Tlusty settles into fourth place as both Raiders qualify for the sectional meet with their performances in Monday’s 3,200-meter run.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Sophie Brost takes the baton from Marissa Fronk in the first exchange of the girls 400-meter relay Monday. Fronk, Brost, Jaylin Machon and Bryn Fronk won in 51.85 seconds.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
