Rau records 12 wins; others find track success

PART 1: COLLEGE ATHLETES WINTER REPORT

The recently-completed winter sports season at the college level included several Taylor County athletes competing in indoor track, wrestling, men’s basketball and women’s swimming.

This week, we take a look at some of the notable performances from those athletes in wrestling and indoor track and field.

Jake Rau, a 2020 Medford graduate, went 12-10 as a sophomore 197-pound wrestler for Jamestown University, an NAIA school in Jamestown, N.D. with an enrollment of about 1,000 students.

Rau won five of his matches by pin, got one by technical fall and one by major decision during the 2022-23 season. He earned three wins by decision and two by forfeit.

He was 11-5 in mid-January before losing some tough matches late in the year.

The Jimmies went 7-11 in dual meets during the season and placed ninth in the nine-team Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament held Feb. 18-19 hosted by Doane University in Crete, Neb.

Rau went 0-2 in the conference tournament, dropping a 6-2 decision to Kolton Kammeyer of Midland (Neb.) and an 11-2 major decision to Jose Sanchez of Northwestern (Iowa).

The two-time state champion as a Raider earned a 2-0 win over Samuel Grove to start the year in the Jimmies’ 23-16 loss to Minnesota State-Moorhead on Nov. 4 and got a pin in 1:22 over Connor Mahoney to help Jamestown defeat Briar Cliff (Iowa) 28-15 on Nov. 15. At the Beaver Bash Duals Nov. 19, Rau earned a 16-0 technical fall in 4:39 over Reid Smyth in the team’s 53-3 win over the University of Saskatchewan and lost a tough 5-4 decision to Dustin Swisher in a 40-3 loss to Minot State.

He got a pin in 1:20 over Sendeska Kalskett in Jamestown’s 43-10 loss to Morningside University of Iowa on Dec. 9. He went 3-1 at the Northwoods Duals at Itasca Community College on Jan. 7. He pinned Luis Salazar in a 39-15 win over Buena Vista and Kohlter Mariscal in a 31-19 win over Itasca. He took a forfeit in a 60-0 win over Northland Community Technical College before falling 3-0 in his last match to Curtis Ruff II in a 48-4 loss to Triton College.

Rau was a 9-3 winner over Colten Hink in Jamestown’s 34-12 loss to Dakota Wesleyan on Jan. 10 and got a pin in 49 seconds over Trillyon Fils-Aime of Southeastern in his only win at the Missouri Valley College Invitational Jan. 20-21.

Rau was 2-2 at Jamestown’s Jimmie Open on Nov. 5, earning a 10-5 win over Shane Hanson of Minot State and an 8-0 major decision over Smith to get to the semifinals. He then lost a 20-4 technical fall to Gabriel Zierden of Concordia-Moorhead and lost the third-place match by medical forfeit to Joseph Lopez of Minot State.

Franny Seidel, a 2020 Medford graduate set personal- best times in the mile run and the 1,000-meter run during indoor track competition with the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs.

She finished the indoor season by competing in both events at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s Indoor Championship hosted by Minnesota State Mankato Feb. 25-26.

In the 1,000-meter event, she set her personal-best mark of 3:02.58 while taking third out of 11 finishers in the preliminaries. She placed sixth out of eight runners in the final at 3:03.05. She added a 13th-place time of 5:22.44 in the mile. The Bulldogs finished eighth in the 14-team meet with 37 points.

Seidel’s best mile time came Feb. 11 at the South Dakota State University Indoor Classic, where she placed 19th at 5:07.03. She also was part of a distance medley relay team that placed third in 11:57.12, trailing Augustana (11:48.52) and Drake (11:51.82).

Before the conference meet, Seidel had lowered her 1,000-meter time to 3:04.51 while placing third at the Twin Ports Invitational hosted by UW-Superior on Jan. 21. She trailed teammates Cailee Peterson (2:51.42) and Madeline Verkerke (2:56.24). She was part of a thirdplace 1,600-meter relay team at that meet as well that finished in 4:08.29 to trail Lakehead University (4:06.53) and UW-River Falls (4:07.82).

Seidel had lowered her mile time to 5:13.1 at the University of Minnesota’s Jack Johnson Classic on Jan. 28, placing 10th. At the Lake Superior Challenge, hosted by the College of St. Scholastica on Feb. 4, Seidel took second in the 800-meter run at 2:19.24, trailing only teammate Savannah Schley of Loyal (2:15.48) and she was part of the third-place 1,600-meter relay team that finished in 4:11.8 and trailed Bemidji State (4:02.4) and another Duluth team (4:02.8).

UM-Duluth’s outdoor season is scheduled to start March 31 at the Wartburg Select meet in Waverly, Iowa.

Ellee Grunwald, a 2021 Medford graduate, finished her second indoor track and field season at St. Norbert College by placing 10th in the mile run at the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Championships hosted by Ripon College Feb. 24-25. She finished in 5:47.5. The Green Knights won their eighth straight NACC indoor conference championship by scoring 164 points to easily outscore Aurora (93), Concordia-Wisconsin (85) and Milwaukee School of Engineering (85).

Grunwald set her best collegiate mile time of 5:39.41 while placing 14th out of 39 finishers at the UW-Oshkosh Titan Challenge on Feb. 18. She was less than nine seconds away from the top 10.

She started the season with a time of 6:07.06 while placing 18th at UW-Parkside’s Lake Michigan Open on Jan. 21 and dropped that down to 5:54.23 while taking 23rd at Ripon’s Red Hawk Invite on Feb. 4.

Grunwald also set a career-best time of 11:53.65 while taking 20th out of 24 entrants in the 3,000-meter run at UW-Whitewater on Jan. 28, beating a time of 12:13.36 from last year. At Ripon’s Dick Hendricks Invite Feb. 11, Grunwald was eighth out of 21 mile runners in a time of 5:49.38 and 23rd in the 800-meter run at 2:49.09.

Grunwald was part of St. Norbert’s winning distance medley relay team at Parkside (14:36.43) and part of a 10th-place 1,600-meter relay team (4:43.64) and Ripon on Feb. 4.

St. Norbert College is scheduled to start its outdoor season by hosting Michigan Tech Saturday.

After two seasons of men’s basketball at Emmaus Bible College, 2020 Rib Lake graduate Steven Petkau is now jumping for the men’s track and field program at Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minn.

Petkau finished the indoor season by placing second in the triple jump at the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference’s indoor championships at UW-Superior, held Feb. 24-25. He went 43 feet, 4.5 inches to trail only Jake Marzinske of Bethan Lutheran (46-3.25) in the competition. He also finished sixth in the long jump at 19-8.75 for the Polars, who placed sixth out of seven teams in the men’s standings with 42 points. They outscored Northwestern, who had 18 points. UW-Superior easily won the team title with 247.5 points.

Petkau also started high jumping late in the season and cleared 5-8 while taking fourth at the Gene Glader Classic, hosted by Bethel College on Feb. 18. He was third in the long jump in that meet at 19-8 and won the triple jump at 42-7.5.

Petkau’s triple jump of 41-8.75 gave him second place at the Carleton Meet of Hearts on Feb. 11 and he placed fifth in the long jump at 19-0.75. He was fifth in the triple jump at 41-0.25 and tied for 15th in the long jump at 18-7 at the Jan. 28 Warren Bowlus Open at UW-Stout and he was fourth in the triple jump (41-6.5) and sixth in the long jump (19-6) at Macalaster’s Vanessa Seljeskog Classic on Jan. 21.

Joey Sullivan, a 2022 Medford graduate, got a taste of indoor competition with the UW-La Crosse men’s track and field team, which won the NCAA Division III indoor national championship March 10-11 and won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference indoor championship meet held at UW-Stout Feb. 24-25. Sullivan placed fourth out of six competitors in the 3,000-meter run at UW-L’s Pat Healy Classic on Jan. 21. He had a time of 9:00.73. The top five finishers were from UW-L, led by Ethan Gregg (8:09.94). Sullivan was ninth out of 17 finishers in the 800-meter run in UW-L’s Mark Guthrie Legacy Invitational on Feb. 4 with his time of 2:01.84. The Eagles had the top seven finishers, led by Cael Schoemann (1:54.93). Sullivan was right behind Bethel’s Gabe Kuecker (2:00.97).

Sullivan was 20th out of 31 runners in the men’s mile at the Midwest Elite Invitational hosted by UW-Whitewater on Feb. 11. His time was 4:32.73. The race was won by UW-Oshkosh’s Steven Potter in 4:07.88.

UW-La Crosse begins outdoor competition April 1 at Wartburg.

Softball updates

The spring softball seasons are underway for a cou- ple of local athletes.

Addison Warner, a 2021 Gilman graduate, is 0-2 in three pitching appearances, including two starts, and has a 3.3 earned run average through 14.2 innings for the Madison College Wolf Pack. In her best outing so far, Warner pitched all six innings in a 4-0 loss to Iowa Lakes Community College and allowed just one earned run while striking out two and allowing six hits. The team is 6-8 after completing a 12-game trip to Florida.

Laurissa Klapatauskas, a 2022 Medford graduate, is 1-0 with a 2.00 earned run average through six appearances, including one start, for the Loras College (Iowa) Duhawks. She has pitched 14 innings for the squad, which is 9-4 after a nine-game trip to Florida. The team plays two games apiece against UW-River Falls and North Park University this Saturday and Sunday in Chicago. She struck out three in three scoreless innings in a 5-2 loss to Edgewood College in a game played in Peoria, Ill. on March 3, pitched four scoreless innings in a 3-2 loss to North Park March 17 and struck out two while allowing three hits in three scoreless innings in a 5-0 win over the University of New England on March 14. Her first college win came Saturday in relief in a 9-8 victory over Bowdoin College.

Franny Seidel

Ellee Grunwald

Joey Sullivan