Girls a solid 7th at Griak; Sullivan nearly wins boys race

MEDFORD CROSS COUNTRY

Six days after testing themselves against some solid in-state competition at the Smiley Invitational, the Medford cross country runners stepped it up a notch Friday by facing some of the best competition in the Upper Midwest at the University of Minnesota’s Roy Griak Invitational.

The Raider girls, who are undefeated in their Wisconsin races thus far, put together another good showing Friday with a seventh-place finish out of 45 scoring teams in the Girls Maroon race and putting their top four scorers among the top 100 finishers out of 397 runners.

The boys got another outstanding run from senior Joe Sullivan, who didn’t win his race for the first time this season, but he took Charlie Power-Theise of St. Paul Como Park, Minn. down to the wire in an attempt to stay undefeated. Sullivan finished second by 1.4 seconds.

The team, meanwhile, placed 29th out of 50 scoring teams in a Boys Maroon race that featured 446 runners.

Medford head coach Kevin Wellman said Sullivan’s head-to-head duel with Power-Theise was fun to watch. Power-Theise finished in 16:31.6, while Sullivan was clocked at 16:33, 20.6 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Brady Korsmo of Bismarck, N.D. Osceola’s Quinn McDonald was fourth in 17:01.9.

“Joe stayed with the lead pack and roughly mid-race was able to pull away along with one other runner,” he said. “Joe and him dueled it out and pulled away from the pack and pushed each other to the finish.”

The rest of the boys were impressive in the way they moved up in the standings as the race progressed. Tanner Hraby was 69th in 18:21.6, Logan Gubser was 247th in 20:02.5, Josh Clark was 275th at 20:24.5, Nick Steliga was 290th in a season- best 20:32.3, Stephen Hraby was 321st in 21:02 and Lucas Borman smashed his previous season-best time by over a minute while finishing 415th in 23:15.

“The individual who moved up in the field by the largest numbers was Tanner Hraby,” Wellman said. “From the 1-mile to the 3K mark, he was able to pass 25 other runners, but this was not his best. In the last 2K, he was able to pass 59 other runners. So from the 1-mile to the finish, Tanner was able to pass 84 other runners. Tanner was not alone with Josh Clark and Nick Steliga being some movers as well. Clark passed 45 other runners over the course with Nick passing 29. The guys were able to move up five places during the course of the race. They ran extremely well and got to experience a top-flight race.”

Bismarck won the team championship with 85 points and put its top six runners within the top 47 finishers. Green Bay Notre Dame was second with 177 points, followed by Dickinson, N.D. with 180 points. Medford’s team total was 793 points.

Other Wisconsin schools in the upper half of the standings included River Falls in eighth place, Grantsburg in 11th, Osceola in 12th, New Richmond in 20th, La Crosse Aquinas in 21st, Gale-Ettrick- Trempeleau in 24th and Menomonie in 25th. Lakeland was 45th.

While the girls didn’t have any challengers for top-10 individual finishes, they used the group concept to earn a high team finish.

Bryn Fronk led the way with her season-best time of 21:05.7 that put her in 45th place. She was about five seconds away from cracking the top 40. Meredith Richter came in at 21:14, good for 54th and 2.4 seconds away from the top 50. Jennifer Kahn was 72nd in one of her better times of the year, 21:34.6. Brooke Rudolph continued her recent momentum with her second-best time of the year, 21:48, which was good for 84th place. Alexis Fleegel was Medford’s fifth scorer. The senior was 116th in 22:22.6.

Freshman Ella Dassow had an impressive showing, taking 196th in 23:20.5, one of her top times of the fall. Ella Daniels was 288th in 24:31.4, Kylie Potvin was 369th in 27:15.4, Natasha Butt was 386th in 28:54.2 and Lydia Way finished 394th in a season-best 30:24.1.

“The girls ran consistently and our biggest runners on the field were Natasha passing six runners with Bryn taking five runners and Ella Dassow and Lydia Way each taking down four other runners,” Wellman said. “The Griak is the great crucible of the season that tests runners and teams to see what they are capable of. Our team showed that when they work together they can achieve great things.”

Isabella Jacobsen of Menomonie won the race in 18:42.4, 2.6 seconds ahead of Albany’s Olivia Goebel. Eighth-grader Addison Scholten of Brandon Valley, S.D. was third in 19:11.3. Northland Pines star Nora Gremban was sixth in 19:32.6.

Mounds View, Minn. won the team championship with 125 points, while Brandon Valley (154), Champlin Park, Minn. (204), Bismarck (206), Menomonie (218) and Green Bay Notre Dame (299) also finished ahead of Medford (360). Rice Lake was 15th, Amery was 17th, New Richmond was 22nd and Lakeland was 28th.

Medford will host its lone invitational of the season today, Thursday, at the high school course with the middle school race kicking things off at 4 p.m. The high school races are scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. with Antigo, Marshfield, Merrill, Northland Pines and Rhinelander scheduled to attend.