Girls nearly perfect; Richter 1st and Hraby 2nd at Christmas Mountain

MEDFORD CROSS COUNTRY

GNC here Saturday

The Medford Raiders celebrated Christmas in October with first- and third-place team finishes Saturday at the Wisconsin Dells Invitational, held at Christmas Mountain Golf Course.

The girls put up a perfect score in this meet in 2021 and they nearly did it again on Saturday. Baraboo freshman Madi Gilbert broke up Medford’s attempt at a score of 15 by finishing second in 21:19.4. Otherwise, the Raiders’ top seven runners all finished in the top eight in a small field of 32.

Meredith Richter collected her fifth victory of 2022, grabbing the lead early, pulling away from the rest of the pack and finishing in 20:23.5, well ahead of Gilbert.

Her sister, Mallory Richter, continued her recent surge up Medford’s depth chart, finishing third in 21:47.3. Ella Daniels was fourth in 21:50.9 and freshman Morgan Liske also continues to peak as she finished fifth in a season-best time of 21:53.6. Ella Dassow was sixth in a solid 22:04.2, Brooke Rudolph was seventh in 22:10.9 and Bjorg Risa returned after a two-meet absence and placed eighth in 22:23.1, 2.7 seconds ahead of Baraboo’s Julia School.

Lindsay Kahn rounded out Medford’s varsity crew by taking 25th in 25:48.9.

Meredith Richter was 26 seconds faster than she was a year ago on the hilly course. Daniels was 32 seconds faster and Dassow was 47 seconds faster.

Medford had four of the 10 runners in the girls JV race. Riley Clark won it for the Raiders in 23:46.2, while teammate Esmeralda Anderson was second in 24:13.8, Lillie Gleichauf was sixth at 26:10.6 and Kaelynn Balciar was seventh in 26:48.

Behind Medford’s 19 team points, Baraboo placed second with 48, followed by Wisconsin Dells (76) and Mauston (104). Nekoosa and Prairie du Chien were incomplete.

Tanner Hraby wasn’t able to catch meet favorite Eli Boppart in the boys race, but he separated himself from everyone else with a second-place time of 17:39.8. Boppart, one of the state’s best in Division 2, won in 16:58.7. Hraby was 21.4 seconds ahead of third-place runner Daniel Yesipovich of Baraboo and beat his 2021 time on the course by 34 seconds.

Josh Clark got past Mauston’s Josh Ellerman and placed fourth in a solid 18:02.2. Ellerman was 7.7 seconds behind. Clark was 1:53 ahead of last year’s pace at Christmas Mountain. Logan Gubser was 14th in a field of 47 runners with his time of 19:27.6. Nick Steliga was 16th at 19:28.9 and Lucas Borman placed 28th in 20:48. Steliga was 1:44 faster than a year ago, while Borman was nearly three minutes ahead of his 2021 run.

Freshman Evan Pagel set a seasonbest time of 21:47.9, while placing 39th for Medford, just ahead of teammate Brandon Curtis, who finished in 21:59.7. Mauston won the meet comfortably with just 30 team points. Baraboo clipped Medford 62 64 for second, but the Raiders got the host Chiefs by two points for third. Prairie du Chien was fifth with 143 points, followed by Portage (176) and Nekoosa (191).

Medford senior Ervin Ulrich set a personal-best time of 22:31.8 while finishing 18th out of 33 runners in the boys JV race. Cullen Jones was 25th for Medford at 23:23.1.

GNC is next

Crunch time for the 2022 season begins Saturday when Medford closes the regular season by hosting the Great Northern Conference championships on the MASH/Kuse course.

The Raider girls are aiming for the program’s sixth straight GNC title. The boys will be looking to knock 2021 champion Rhinelander off its perch. The Hodags, Lakeland and Tomahawk all figure to be in the mix in what should be a competitive battle for the team title.

Nora Gremban of Northland Pines is the defending individual girls champion and it would be shocking if the junior did not repeat. Owen Clark of Lakeland was second last year behind Medford’s nowdeparted Joe Sullivan. Clark has had an excellent fall and is certainly a favorite to win the boys race.

The top seven runners in each varsity race will earn All-GNC first-team honors. The second seven will get second-team awards and places 15-21 will earn honorable mention.

The varsity girls race starts the day at 11 a.m., followed by the boys at 11:30 and the JV combined race at noon. Awards are set to start at about 12:45 p.m.