Losiewicz hits new height; Clark wins 800 as Raiders finish 3rd at West

WAUSAU WEST BOYS INVITE

Led by wins from Josh Clark in the 800-meter run and Gage Losiewicz in the pole vault, the Medford Raiders finished a solid third out of nine teams in Tuesday’s Wausau West Boys Small School Invitational.

The Raiders scored 109 points to trail the host Warriors (147.5) and Shawano (121) in the team standings. Newman Catholic was 30 points behind Medford in fourth place and was followed by Colby (58), Loyal (39), Thorp (32.5), Athens (31) and Faith Christian Academy (2).

Clark’s win helped Medford score 15 points in the 800-meter race. He finished in 2:19.13 to beat Shawano’s Will Chelberg by 2.16 seconds. Owen Stockwell was fifth for the Raiders in 2:34.44 and Ervin Ulrich added the eighth-place point at 2:44.16.

Losiewicz had a big day in the pole vault, which he won by clearing the bar at a personal-best 12 feet, 6 inches. He won the tiebreaker for first over Ryan Peel of Athens. They got a foot higher than third-place finisher Kyle Schreiner of Athens. Losiewicz’s previous best was 11-6.

Senior Charlie Kleist had a strong track and field debut, led by a secondplace finish in the 200-meter dash at 27.04 seconds. He was just 0.7 seconds behind winner Drake Herm of Shawano. Kleist added a fifth-place finish in the 55-meter dash at 7.22 seconds. He was 0.11 seconds away from second place in a race won by Colby’s Caden Healy in 6.87 seconds.

A good chunk of Medford’s scoring came in relay races, led by a second-place finish from the 1,600-meter team of Losiewicz, Adyn Gripentrog, Zach Rudolph and Clark. They had a time of 4:16.49 that put them well ahead of third-place Shawano (4:29.45). Wausau West won comfortably in 4:10.99. The 3,200-meter team of Stockwell, Anthony Seidel, Lucas Borman and Naut van Meurs took third in 9:22.9, well ahead of Newman Catholic (9:49.5). Shawano won in 8:39.9, while Wausau West took second at 8:57.5.

William Bartnik, Evan Pagel, Anthony Seidel and Gripentrog ran to a third-place finish in the sprint medley in 2:38.66, 0.93 seconds ahead of fourth-place Shawano. The Raiders trailed Newman (2:30.19) and Wausau West (2:33.73). The four-lap relay team of Anakin Stokes, Jake Dassow, Paxton Rothmeier and Cory Lindahl took fourth in a time of 1:19.82. Shawano won that race in 1:17.65.

Silas Wipf earned third place in the 1,600-meter run at 5:17.79, while Ulrich added an eighth-place point at 5:51.29 and Dayne Jacobsen wasn’t far off, taking 10th at 6:05.47. Jacobsen was part of an 11-point event for Medford in the 400-meter dash. Sophomore Caleb Scoles was third in 1:05.8, just ahead of Jacobsen’s 1:06.14.

Also scoring on the track were Rothmeier (9.98) and Will Daniels (10.6), who placed sixth and eighth in the 55-meter hurdles, and Daniels again, who took eighth in the 200-meter hurdles at 33.3 seconds, while Hudson Briggs was 10th at 35.22 seconds.

Evan Paul put 12 points on the board for Medford by taking third in the long and high jumps. He cleared 5-6 in the high jump to fall just 2 inches behind the top two jumpers, Healy and Kargie Cooper of Wausau West. Lindahl got the seventh-place points at 5-2, while Kleist tied for 11th at 5 feet. Paul went 17-9 in the long jump to trail Healy (20-10.25) and Braxton Stark of Thorp (18-6.5). Lindahl fell one spot shy of scoring, taking ninth at 16-10.5.

The Raiders got nine points in the triple jump, led by Vincent Seidel’s fourthplace jump of 35-8.25. Stockwell was right behind him at 35-5 and Daniels was 10th at 28 feet.

Will Haavisto led Medford’s shot putters by earning 15th place at 33-2.5. Alex Kraegenbrink was 18th at 31-8.5 and Jacob Reichtzigel was 25th at 25-7.75. Kraegenbrink was 21st in the long jump too at 14-0.75.

Back on the track, Lindahl was 11th (11.06) in the 55-meter hurdle preliminaries, Dassow (7.52) was 11th and Jace Curran (7.72) was 17th in the 55-meter dash preliminaries, Curran (29.02) was 13th and Pagel (32.59) was 26th in the 200-meter dash and Ryker Hallam (1:40.15) was 17th in the 400-meter dash.

The UW-Stout Elite meet is next for some of the Medford’s top performers on Friday. The girls will be at Wausau West on Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. and both squads will be at Northland Pines on April 6.