Raiders squeak by Rapids; Krause sets another record

MEDFORD GYMNASTICS

Kyla Krause did not set any personal records in an individual event Thursday, but she scored well enough on all four of them to continue her recent assault on Medford’s gymnastics record board.

The junior scored 35.45 all-around points and senior Kate Malchow added a victory on the balance beam to lead the Raiders to a 134.675-132.925 victory over Wisconsin Rapids on Senior Night at Medford Area Elementary School.

The win was a big one, keeping the Raiders’ hopes of at least a share of the Great Northern Conference’s Large Division championship alive. Medford finished 2-1 in the dual meets, second behind Marshfield’s record of 3-0. If the Raiders can outscore the Tigers in the Feb. 18 GNC meet at Marshfield, they’ll get that piece of the title.

“It can happen,” Medford head coach Steve Cain said. “There’s no reason why it can’t.”

The vibes were all positive after Thursday’s win where the Raiders scored well enough in most cases to feel good about what they did, but there also were enough small glitches to know they can still do better and inch their team score even higher in the key season-ending meets that are quickly approaching.

“It was a very good night,” Cain said. “I’m glad that it went like it did for being Senior Night. We couldn’t have asked for a better night for everything that we have going on.”

Krause’s record night started with a 9.2 that gave her first place on the vault, not far off her school record of 9.4. She then won the uneven bars with a score of 8.85 that nearly equaled her record of 8.9 set five days earlier in Antigo. Krause was third on the balance beam with an 8.55 and third in the floor exercise with an 8.85.

It all added up to 35.45, which eclipsed Malchow’s record of 35.275 set at last year’s sectional meet. With those two still going at it, it remains to be seen how long 35.45 sits at the top.

“They’re all pretty even, but the allaround takes a lot more because you have to be consistent through all the events in the whole meet,” Krause said of now holding three school records. “You can’t just have one good event.

“Vault was pretty good,” she added. “I’m just trying to work on consistently landing it in each meet. For bars, I added my double-back dismount that’s helped my score a lot this year. I’d been going for that record for awhile. My beam scores have been better this year than the last two years. It’s been improving.”

The Raiders got some early momentum on the vault by scoring a seasonhigh 34.9 team points. After Krause’s 9.2, Malchow landed her second vault and earned a season-high 8.75 to place second. Freshman Delaina Meyer took third with an 8.55. Veronica Mateer was a tenth off her personal record and tied teammate Ellison Carbaugh for sixth place. Both earned 8.4s. Carbaugh’s score was 0.05 off her season-best.

“We had a pretty strong vault night,” Cain said. “The only reason Kyla probably didn’t get higher than that was because when she landed, she was still bent over slightly. She wasn’t fully opened up. Looking down the rest of the list, they all put on a vault showing that was very strong. It’s just simple little things. There’s the stepouts on the landings, I noticed some legs apart on the board.

I noticed some going over the top vertically. They weren’t going square over the top. Kate’s second one was good, but her position was low on her landing. That would’ve given her probably three tenths and put her at a 9.”

Malchow’s 9.075 on the balance beam was her best score since she got a 9.2 at last year’s sectional and easily beat runner-up Destinee Steinhafel of Rapids (8.7). Senior Avery Purdy tied Rapids’ Tia Thao for fifth at 8.05, Mateer was eighth at 7.7 and Meyer was 10th at 6.5. The team earned 33.375 points, putting them back on a nice upward climb after two meets in the 31s.

“We have to get to where we have no falls,” Cain said. “The judges said on the beam with all of our girls we have great execution. They just have to get their jump heights higher and they have to also make sure they keep things connected and flowing. I thought they did, but I could see some areas where it was questionable.”

After Krause’s winning 8.85 on the bars, Malchow’s 8.35 was just enough to get her by Steinhafel (8.3) for second place. Purdy’s clean routine earned a 7.75, tying her season-best and putting her in a fifth-place tie with Red Raider Morgan Benedict. Shayla Radlinger placed eighth at 7.2 and Meyer was ninth at 7.15.

The Raiders had another big finish on the floor, scoring 34.25 points. Rapids edged Medford in that event with 35.075 points. This was the only event Rapids outscored Medford. Fiona Gaugert won it with an 8.925 and Steinhafel got an 8.9 to sneak ahead of Krause’s 8.85.

Malchow was fifth with her 8.6, Meyer and Radlinger tied for seventh with 8.4s and Mateer was 10th with her 8.15.

A high-scoring JV meet was won by Wisconsin Rapids 117.7-96.95, but Medford had plenty of highlights.

Kaileigh Mientke won the vault with a personal-best score of 8.4, Radlinger tied for third with an 8.1, just ahead of 8.0s earned by Bridget Cloud and Purdy. Foreign exchange student Leni Wilhelm debuted with a 7.2 that was good for ninth.

“That was a pretty good start,” Cain said. “That got things rocking and rolling.”

Cloud, a freshman, won the balance beam competition with a personal-best 8.35 and Radlinger was second at 7.6. Mientke tied for fourth at 7.2, Wilhelm earned a 6.8 while placing seventh and Carbaugh was eighth at 6.2.

“Bridget PR’d on beam and did a beautiful job,” Cain said. “She had no falls. Shayla had no falls. She just had some bobbles and broken connections.”

Purdy tied her personal record of 8.0 while finishing third on the floor. Cloud did set a new high mark with her sixthplace score of 7.4. Mateer led the Raiders with a third-place score of 6.7 on the bars. Cloud and Carbaugh tied for fourth with 6.2s.

Medford heads north Saturday to the Ashland Invitational. That will be the

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

team’s last tune-up before the conference meet.