Raiders race to Large School championships at Marshfield

MEDFORD CROSS COUNTRY

The Medford Raiders continued to find early-season success at Tuesday’s Marshfield Tiger Cross Country Invitational by securing the Large School Division championships in both girls and boys competition held at Wildwood Park.

The girls were the overall champions, compiling just 38 points to outscore Small School Division champion Stratford (87) and the next group of Large School squads Wisconsin Rapids (102), Marshfield (103), Sparta (125) and Tomah (166). They were led by the girls individual champion Meredith Richter, who won her second race of the fall in three tries.

The boys were fourth overall out of 19 teams represented in that varsity race, which was dominated by smaller schools. Medford (122) and Wisconsin Rapids (142) were the only larger schools in the top eight. Rapids placed sixth. Stevens Point Pacelli won the Small School Division and overall championship with 70 points, just enough to beat Athens (76). Stratford (105) was third overall, Pittsville (140) was fifth, Marathon (163) was seventh and Auburndale (184) was eighth.

The varsity girls race featured 93 finishers and Richter, a junior, was the best of them, finishing in 20:09.9, well ahead of Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Rory Salveand son (20:31.4) and Mosinee’s Taelyn Jirschele (20:40.7).

Raider junior Ella Daniels kept her impressive start to 2022 going by taking the team’s second scoring spot. She was sixth with a seasonbest time of 21:10.3 and Bjorg Risa was right behind her with her best time of the early season at 21:22.5, almost 70 seconds ahead of her last race at Mosinee. Senior Brooke Rudolph had her best time of the young season at 21:52.9, good for 12th place, and freshman Lindsay Kahn was the fifth scorer in 16th place with a time of 22:11.9.

Sophomore Ella Dassow was right behind Kahn at 22:17.1, freshman Mallory Richter was 19th at 22:39.1 and the Raiders put all eight entrants in the top 25 with freshman Morgan Liske’s time of 23:18.

A total of 18 teams were represented in the girls race. Mosinee was seventh in the overall team standings with 173 points, followed by Marathon (193), Merrill (253), Abbotsford (263) and Pittsville (293). Antigo, Athens, Black River Falls, Columbus Catholic, Nekoosa, Spencer Wittenberg-Birnamwood did not field full squads.

The girls also got good news in JV competition as senior Bryn Fronk ran her first race of the fall and won it in 23:52.7 as she works to come back from a January knee injury. She beat Auburndale’s Hope Schulte by 11.3 seconds. Six Raiders teamed up to take second in the team standings with 39 points, just behind Marshfield’s 30 points.

Riley Clark was fifth in 25:38.4, Esmeralda Anderson was eighth at 25:48.8, Lillie Gleichauf was 14th in 26:21.9, Kylie Potvin was 17th at a season-best 26:51.7 and Natasha Butt was 19th in a sesaonbest 27:20.4. There were 49 finishers.

Boys results

Tanner Hraby was once again Medford’s top boys finisher Tuesday, but senior Josh Clark continues to push him. Hraby took seventh overall out of 113 finishers in 17:31.6, while Clark was ninth in a personal-best 17:40.2, that put him 3.9 seconds behind eighth-place runner Owen Hoerneman of Marshfield.

Logan Gubser placed 27th for Medford in 19:15.3, Nick Steliga was 35th at 19:25 and Lucas Borman was the team’s fifth man, placing 58th in a personal-best 20:55.9.

Brandon Curtis lowered his time to 22:54.8 in his second varsity race, good for 93rd. Evan Pagel was 106th at 24:20.8 and Cullen Jones was 108th in 25:11.1.

Ervin Ulrich added a 28th-place time of 25:05.3 in the JV race.

Adam Eiden of Pacelli won the boys individual championship in 16:43.5, beating Columbus Catholic’s Isaac Scheer by 5.3 seconds. Connor Sheahan of Athens was third in 16:49.6, while Colin Wellnitz of Wisconsin Rapids (17:19.8), Carl Oskar Wilcox-borg of Tomah (17:19.8) and Gabe Hoerter of Pacelli (17:25) also finished ahead of Hraby.

Sparta was ninth overall in the team standings with 214 points, followed by Tomah (248), Black River Falls (296), Columbus Catholic (318), Wittenberg-Birnamwood (321), Merrill (325) and Mosinee (406). Antigo, Marshfield, Nekoosa and Spencer were incomplete.

Medford’s next meet is Tuesday’s Antigo Invite at Gartzke Flowage, one of the tougher courses the Raiders will run on this season. From there it’s on to the Smiley Invitational at Wausau East on Sept. 17.