Girls hold off West Salem by two; boys finish 4th

BLACK RIVER FALLS INVITATIONAL

The Medford Raiders got a chance to scout their WIAA sectional course Tuesday, the girls got a stern test from one of their sectional opponents, and they once again came out on top during the Raiders’ successful trip to the 16-team Black River Falls Invitational, held at Skyline Golf Course.

The girls squeaked by West Salem 33-35 while getting with their fourth and fifth scorers holding two key spots down the stretch to keep Medford in front of the Panthers.

The boys also had a solid meet, taking fourth in a meet won by sixth-ranked West Salem, who beat Mauston by four points.

Medford head coach Sherry Meyer called the Skyline Course “very hilly and challenging.”

Coming off her school-record performance on Thursday, Meredith Richter again led the girls, winning Tuesday’s race in a time of 20:07. Her sister Mallory Richter had an outstanding run, placing seventh in a personalbest 21:33. Ella Daniels added to her collection of top-10 finishes this season, placing eighth in 21:45. The keys to staying ahead of West Salem were 13th- and 14thplace finishes by Ella Dassow and Morgan Liske. Dassow, a sophomore, finished in 22:06, and Liske, a freshman, came in at 22:13.3. Dassow was seven seconds ahead of West Salem’s fifth scorer, Morgan Quackenbush (22:13.7) and Liske was 0.4 seconds ahead of her.

Senior Brooke Rudolph was just behind Quackenbush, finishing 16th in 22:27. Lindsay Kahn was 28th at 23:44, Esmeralda Anderson was 30th at 23:57, Riley Clark was 32nd in 24:09, Kylie Potvin was 48th at 26:00 and Kaelynn Balciar was 54th for Medford in 26:29.

Tanner Hraby and Josh Clark were top-10 finishers for the boys. Hraby was third in a season-best 17:07, while Clark was 10th in 17:48. Logan Gubser was 32nd for Medford in 19:15, Nick Steliga was 39th in 19:34 and Lucas Borman continued to close on in his goal of breaking the 20-minute mark. He was 52nd in 20:18, a new personal-best.

Brandon Curtis set a personal-best time of 21:31 while finishing 78th. Evan Pagel was 93rd in 22:31, Cullen Jones made a move upward finishing 101st in 23:12 and Ervin Ulrich was 103rd in 23:17.

Mauston’s Eli Boppart won the race. Medford will head south again on Saturday to compete in the seven-team Wisconsin Dells Invitational at Christmas Mountain Golf Course. The meet starts at 10 a.m. That will be the last tune-up for the Raiders before they host the Great Northern Conference Championships on Saturday, Oct. 15.