Richter breaks record; home course produces fast times

MEDFORD CC INVITATIONAL

The Medford Raiders’ mission for Thursday was to defend the home course and take advantage of the opportunities for speed that it provides and, by and large, that’s what they did in their fiveteam cross country invitational.

Meredith Richter made the biggest individual news by breaking Medford’s girls school-record time for a 5K race while taking second place in 19:14.9. She smashed the old record of 19:31 held by 2020 graduate Franny Seidel.

As a team, the girls blew by the competition, putting their five scorers among the top seven finishers to total just 24 points, 40 fewer than runner-up Marshfield.

The boys very nearly put up seasonbest times across the board while taking second behind Great Northern Conference rival Lakeland. Four of the five teams at Thursday’s meet were conference foes, who will return to the Medford course for the GNC Championships on Saturday, Oct. 15.

“It was great,” senior Josh Clark said after his fourth-place finish in the boys race. “Our course is super flat with no hills and a great environment. It’s the conference teams. We all get along pretty well. It was a fun day.”

“The girls really packed up and did well and the boys raced great,” head coach Sherry Meyer said.

Girls dominate

Northland Pines superstar Nora Gremban added another record to her stellar three-year prep running career by setting the girls course record at 18:40.9, but after that, everyone was seeing red at the finish line.

Medford’s lead pack started with Richter. Coming off an impressive second- place finish at the 454-runner Griak Invitational in Minnesota, the junior kept that momentum going Thursday, especially in the second half of the race where she pulled more than a minute ahead of Marshfield’s Natalie Scharenbroch (20:19.6).

“At the beginning of the day, 19:20 was my goal,” Richter said. “I thought that was reasonable. Once the race started my times were more off than they should have been. I kinda felt a little defeated in the middle. I didn’t think I was going to be able to hit it then. Once I got to the open part (west of the track), I had about 700 meters left, I looked at my watch and I was like, ‘I think I can make it.’ So then I really kicked it in and surprised myself. It felt really good.”

“I know Meredith really had a goal to break that record,” Meyer said. “She was pretty excited about that and the girls followed right behind her, one right after another.”

Ella Daniels was the next Raider to cross the finish line and she wasn’t alone. Daniels was fourth in 21:14.4, senior Brooke Rudolph had her best time of 2022 while taking fifth in 21:21.5 and freshmen Morgan Liske (21:22.5) and Mallory Richter (21:38.8) were sixth and seventh with their best times of the fall.

“It’s so fun watching, Medford, Medford, Medford come across,” Meredith Richter said. “I was like, ‘Medford got it again.’ It’s good to see Brooke back where she usually is, and Ella Daniels she is just kicking it this year. It’s awesome. I love watching her run.”

Ella Dassow was the sixth Raider to finish, taking 14th out of 62 runners in a time of 22:19.9. Lindsay Kahn was 21st in 23:04.6, just ahead of teammate Esmeralda Anderson, who set her best time of 23:12.5. Riley Clark was 28th in a personal-best 23:43.2, Kylie Potvin was 39th in 25:04.8, Kaelynn Balciar lowered her time to 26:02.2 while placing 47th and Lillie Gleichauf was 51st in 26:33.1.

“This year I have a very different perspective on (our course),” Meredith Richter said. “I never realized it, but it’s probably one of the flattest courses we ran at. There is not a single hill that’s going to defeat you or anything like that, so it’s fast and you really just have to get that in your head that this is a fast course. I never really realized that before. It definitely makes a difference. It’s great. I love our home course. Conference here is going to be awesome.”

Richter said her Griak race, without question, was a momentum builder for the rest of her season.

“Last year, I don’t know what happened to me, but I had an awful race (at Griak),” she said. “I did not want the same thing to happen again. I was like, we’re just going to do better. The first mile I was up a lot farther than I expected to be, but my times were still right on, so I was like we’re just going to roll with it. Then I just kept getting up there, up there more and more and I just held it. I was like, there is no way this is happening. I felt great that day. It was fun to be with the team the whole day and then go run. College races were really cool to watch. That was a fun day.”

Lakeland finished third in the team standings with 76 points, followed by Rhinelander (86) and Northland Pines (125).

Solid meet for boys

Medford’s boys gained confidence in this quasi-preview for the upcoming conference meet. Lakeland’s Owen Clark got out in front early and stayed there, winning in 16:45.6. But Raider Tanner Hraby also separated himself early and held second place virtually throughout the race and finished in a season-best time of 17:08.3. Rhinelander’s Cody Ruetz was third, followed by Raider Josh Clark in a personal-best 17:35.5, 9.1 seconds ahead of fifth-place runner Ashton Bremer of Lakeland.

Logan Gubser was 12th in a seasonbest 18:44.3, Nick Steliga was 18th in 19:18.4 and senior Lucas Borman continued to cut time and picked off a couple of runners late while finishing 25th in 20:23.8.

“It seems like everyone ran well,” Hraby said.

“This meet is pretty big,” Josh Clark said. “It gives us a pretty solid preview of how we’re going to be doing at conference.

“Now we know where we want to be at conference, timewise,” Hraby said.

“Tanner got up on Owen Clark pretty good and didn’t falter too far back and stayed strong and Josh really moved up,” Meyer said. “His times are just great. Lucas Borman, his finish today and his times all season have been great.”

“We’ve improved so much,” Clark said. “Everybody is chopping down their time. Every race Lucas shaves off three or four minutes from last year’s time.”

Clark’s improvement has been notable as well. In just his second year with the team, he was over two minutes faster Thursday than he was in last year’s Medford Invite.

“It’s my senior year so if I’m going to do something, I wanted to do it right,” he said. “So over the summer I put in a lot of training, a lot of miles and it’s definitely paying off.”

Brandon Curtis was Medford’s sixth finisher, taking 32nd in 21:33.7, a season-best by more than a minute. Evan Pagel was 36th in 22:11.3, also a season-best by more than a minute. Ervin Ulrich was 39th at 22:37.8, a season-best by 1:20 and Cullen Jones was 40th in 22:48.

Lakeland won the meet with 44 points, followed by Medford (61), Rhinelander (65), Marshfield (70) and Northland Pines (101).

“Brandon Curtis really has blossomed and stepped up,” Meyer said. “All the boys are really taking it serious and wanting it. Ervin Ulrich has some great goals and tonight he was all smiles with his time. Nick had a little bit of a rough race at the Griak, he had some tender legs but tonight it seemed like he was really picking it up. Logan Gubser’s going well. Cullen Jones is getting into a different speed and moving up too.”

Middle school

The meet began with the middle school race, which featured 90 girls and 100 boys.

Medford’s boys placed fourth with 99 points behind Marshfield (38), John Muir (43) and D.C. Everest (49). Corbyn Radlinger was 12th in 13:05.8, Jordan Lavin was 22nd in 13:38.3 and Ayden Tyznik was 28th in 13:45.3.

Medford’s girls were fifth with 111 points and trailed D.C. Everest (33), John Muir (40), Marshfield (78) and Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk (109). Annalee Bull led Medford by taking 16th in 14:23.8. Olivia Schaefer (14:34.3), Greta Seidel (14:36) and Kyra Scheithauer (14:36.2) were 23rd-25th.

Medford’s Esmeralda Anderson strides ahead of runners from Marshfield and Rhinelander early in Thursday’s girls race. Anderson finished 22nd in her best time of the fall at 23:12.5.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Lucas Borman begins his final 200-meter kick to end a solid 25th-place finish in Thursday’s boys race.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS