After opening loss, Raiders win out to claim 2nd event trophy

WAUSAU TIETGE BONSPIEL

For the first time in five years a Medford boys curling team brought home hardware from the 70th annual Tietge Bonspiel held at the Wausau Curling Center.

Medford’s team of skip Brett Lundy, third Alex Wilson and lead Nathan Willman took first place in the second event at the bonspiel held Friday and Saturday. The boys went 4-1 on the weekend.

They faced the Rogney Rink of Waupaca in the first round at 8 a.m. Friday playing and suffered their only loss of the weekend.

“The lopsided loss in the first game was them adjusting to the ice,” coach Jackie Lemke said. “It was much quicker than Medford and had more curl. They also had to deal with a fall to the wall. Once they figured that all out, they started making a ton of shots.

“Going into each game, we talked about what strategy we wanted to play against our opponents, which was challenging at times because there were some teams the boys had never played against before,” she added. “However, playing aggressively with a lot of rocks in the house was consistently working for them, so that is the game plan we stuck to. And it worked. They made so many shots when they really needed them and were just relentless against their opponents. The fact that they managed the swingy ice as well as they did with only one sweeper is outstanding. Even despite the game one loss, they maintained their focus and demonstrated incredible resiliency. It was awesome.”

The boys regrouped during their break on Friday and got back on the ice to face the Sodeberg Rink of Monona Grove on sheet six at the 4:30 p.m. draw time.

Medford came out hot, scoring three rocks in the first end and added another in the second end. Monona Grove answered with a big end in the third to tie the game up at 4-4. Medford took advantage of having hammer and edged ahead with another point in the fourth end. They had a big fifth end, laying four to bring the score to 9-4. Monona Grove scored for the last time adding a point in the sixth end. Medford had another big end scoring three more in the seventh end to bring the score 12-6 with Monona Grove conceding.

The boys were back in action at 8 a.m. Saturday against the Eckrose Rink of Kimberly. This was one of the tighter games of the weekend despite the final score being 9-3.

Medford scored a single rock in the first two ends with Kimberly answering with a point in the third end. Medford added a point in the fourth Kimberly adding a point in the fifth end. Medford added to their lead scoring again in the sixth end to bring the sore to 5-2 at the start of the seventh end. Kimberly narrowed Medford’s lead with a point in the seventh end. Kimberly’s skip conceded the loss after throwing his first rock in the eight end, with Medford laying three with hammer.

With the win, the boys advanced to the semifinal game played at 1 p.m. on Saturday on sheet two against the Standnik Rink of Appleton East who was also playing three-handed in the tournament.

This was again a close contest at least in the early ends with Medford winning 10-4 after seven ends.

Appleton East came out strong scoring one each in the first and second ends. Medford was able to capitalize on having hammer in the third end to even up the score at 2-2. Things remained tight with the teams each adding a point in the fourth and fifth ends and Appleton pulled ahead with another point in the sixth end making it 4-3 heading into the seventh. In that end, Medford took control, laying a minefield of rocks in the front half of the 12-foot circle leaving the Appleton East skip few chances to steal a point and Medford ended up scoring an impressive seven rocks in that end with their eighth rock just outside the back corner of the house. Appleton East conceded with the score of 10-4.

Heading into the finals, the boys were excited to know that win or lose they would be coming home with pins commemorating the 70th annual high school bonspiel. However, the major goal for the boys was to bring home the trophy.

In the second event final, the Raiders moved to sheet three to face the Meyer Rink from Marshfield. This was a grudge match for Medford as the team had beaten the Raiders 12-10 back on Nov. 29. The Raiders have jelled as a team since that first meeting and came into the matchup confident they could hold their own.

Marshfield got on the board first scoring two rocks in the first end. However, Medford bounced back quickly and capitalized on having hammer to score three and take the lead in the third ends. Medford didn’t look back from that point scoring, two more points in each of the third, fourth and fifth ends leaving the score 9-2 after five end. After Medford scored another five in the sixth end, Marshfield conceded with the final score at 14-2.

The Medford girls team did not compete in this year’s Tietge Bonspiel.

The teams have this week off from competition before going to Waupaca Tuesday.