Krause and Mateer tied for ….

Krause and Mateer tied for fourth with 7.95s.

Mateer said she hit her goal for the day.

“I just wanted to stay on the beam,” she said.

In the all-around results, Ulrich’s 34.55 just beat Krause’s personal-best 34.25 total points while Malchow was third with 33.575 points.

Sectional is Friday

Medford is back in Antigo Friday for the WIAA Division 2 sectional meet, where the top five finishers and top five all-arounds will advance to individual state competition and the top two teams will also be team competitors at state. The Division state meet is now a one-day event, Friday, March 4 at Wisconsin Rapids.

The Raiders are a favorite based on their season scores and they will go in as a confident bunch. They also are mildly surprised at their late-season success, which has been achieved without one of their top gymnasts, junior Anna Wanke, who was lost to injury in the season’s second meet. Veterans stepped up, as did the freshmen and they expect to keep it going in the season’s biggest meets.

“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” Krause said.

“Our team score has improved a lot since the first meet,” Malchow said.

“I honestly didn’t think we were going to break the school record again,” Purdy said. “Then we gradually started to get better and better.”

“Personally I got kind of nervous just because of not having Anna,” Ulrich said. “But we managed to do it. I think that was more of like a wake-up call like, ‘OK guys we need to kick it in gear a little bit.’” “I’m excited to see what it all holds for us,” Purdy said.

Antigo, Ashland, Lakeland, Mosinee, Rhinelander, Rice Lake and Washburn will be the other teams competing Friday at the sectional meet.