Lopez places in four events, boys relays do well at UW-SP

MARAWOOD INDOOR INVITE

Olivia Lopez accounted for 22 of the girls’ points and three relay teams were responsible for more than half of the boys’ points for Rib Lake during Monday’s Marawood Conference Indoor Invitational held at UW-Stevens Point.

Lopez placed third in three of her four individual events and added a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter dash to score all but two of Rib Lake’s points in the girls meet.

In her second 200-meter dash of the indoor season, Lopez lowered her time to 28.98 seconds to finish just behind Mataya Eckert of Phillips and Grace Kahon of Marathon, who finished in 27.97 and 28.79 seconds, respectively. Rib Lake’s Emma Tlusty came up one spot and 0.46 seconds shy of scoring with her ninth-place time of 30.47 seconds, also an improvement from Thursday’s meet in Merrill.

In the 60-meter dash, Lopez placed sixth in the preliminaries at 8.67 seconds to qualify for the final, where she lowered her time to 8.6 seconds. That was good for fifth behind freshman Bella Thomas of Wisconsin Rapids Assumption (8.18), Morgan Schnelle of Edgar (8.29), Malana Koehler of Edgar (8.41) and Ava Ford of Athens (8.55). Tlusty was 17th in the prelims at 9.08 seconds and Isabelle Gumz was 27th in 9.49 seconds.

Lopez did the rest of her damage in horizontal jumps. In the triple jump, she came up just 1 inch shy of 32 feet to place third behind Newman Catholic’s Natalie Brenner (33-1.5) and Katlyn Schreiner of Athens (32-3). Lopez was 13.5 inches ahead of fourth-place jumper Mallory Rozwadowski of Newman. In the long jump, Lopez went 15-3 to fall just 1.5 inches behind the winner, Schnelle, and a halfinch behind Newman’s Mel Severson. Lopez was an inch ahead of Brenner.

Rib Lake’s other two points came in the 800-meter relay with an eighth-place time of 2:06.88. Gumz, Madison Grzanna, Tlusty and Camryn Glenzer were credited with the seventh-place points because Edgar had two teams in the race. Edgar’s A team won in 1:54.91, followed by Phillips (1:57.43), Stratford (1:58.58), Newman Catholic (1:58.91), Abbotsford (1:59.23), Wisconsin Rapids Assumption (2:01.6) and Edgar’s B team (2:05.7). Athens was well behind Rib Lake at 2:14.46.

Elsewhere in field events, Glenzer, Tlusty and Gumz all cleared 4 feet to tie for 10th in the high jump. Gumz finished 15th in the shot put with a toss of 24-10, while Tessa Krause was 22nd for Rib Lake at 23-8.5 and Grace Artz was 23rd at a season-best 23-3.5. Sy’ Rih Hartwig of Athens won at 35-11.5, well ahead of Margo Pogodzinski of Abbotsford (31-7). Molly Schmittfranz was fifth for Rib Lake in the JV shot put at 22-0.5, Ziarra Schrader was seventh at 20-0.5, Katie Heiser was eighth at 20-0.5 and Kaylee Brandner was 12th at 16-5.

On the track, Anna Martin was 12th in the 1,600-meter run at 7:15.43 and 25th in the 800-meter run at 3:24.21, while Glenzer was 24th in the 200-meter dash at 34.06 seconds.

Newman Catholic won the girls team title with 95 points, well ahead of Phillips (72) and Edgar (63). Marathon was fourth with 56 points, followed by Stratford (54), Athens (50.5), Abbotsford (50), Chequamegon (49.5), Assumption (49), Rib Lake (24), Auburndale (9) and Prentice (2).

Rib Lake ran toward the top of the list in the long relays during Monday’s boys meet. The 3,200-meter team of Ryan Buehler, Dominick Classen, Kaleb Scott and Donovan Sutherland finished in 9:19.81 to place third behind Phillips (9:08.11) and Stratford (9:10.14). Auburndale was just behind the Redmen in 9:21.72.

The 1,600-meter team of Sutherland, Classen, Scott and Ben Petersen also took third in 3:50.12, trailing Edgar (3:41.5) and Marathon (3:41.73). Auburndale was a distant fourth at 3:58.1. The team of Ethan Keiser, Scott, Petersen and Classen took fifth in the 800-meter relay at 1:42.42, finishing 1.1 seconds ahead of sixth-place Newman Catholic. Stratford won that race in 1:38.9, followed by Assumption (1:40.83), Edgar (1:41.05) and Abbotsford (1:41.25).

Individually, senior Theo Robisch had a big day, placing in all three of his jumping events. He tied his personal best of 5-6 in the high jump, previously set outdoors last spring, and placed fourth. Mason White Eagle of Auburndale won at 6-1, followed by five jumpers who topped out at 5-6. Robisch went a personal-best 18-4.5 to take seventh in the long jump competition. He edged Abbotsford’s Evan Reis by a half-inch for the extra point. Edgar’s Teegan Streit won at 19-5, 1.5 inches ahead of teammate Leyton Schuett. Rib Lake’s Gus Zuleger was 22nd at 13-6.5.

Robisch went 37-4.5 in the triple jump to tack on two more seventh-place points. He was an inch ahead of Edgar’s William Hackel. Streit won again at 43-7, 8 inches ahead of Stratford’s Connor Weigel.

Back on the track, Sutherland got four points with his fifth-place time of 2:15.34 in the 800-meter run. Teammate Jack Regier was 13th in 2:25.95 in a race won by Phillips freshman Gavin Esterholm (2:06.83). Buehler placed seventh in the 1,600-meter run at 5:18.3, 2.18 seconds ahead of eighth-place runner Jack Schindler of Abbotsford. Connor Highfill was 20th for Rib Lake at 6:26.06 in a race won by Chequamegon’s Isaiah Deitz at 4:46.37. Highfill also took 12th in the 3,200-meter run at 13:19.31.

Regier was 12th in the 400-meter dash at 1:00.46, while Noah Wiitala was 15th in the 200-meter dash at 26.46 seconds, Zuleger was 29th (29.98) and Kaedyn Kopelke (31.1) was 30th. Keiser was 16th in the 60-meter dash preliminaries at 7.87 seconds, while Wiitala (8.06) was 22nd and Logan Schmidtfranz (8.52) was 30th.

Kopelke led Rib Lake in the shot put by taking 22nd at 30-11. Schmidtfranz tied for 28th at 28-5 and Xavier Johnson was 31st at 25-10.

Rib Lake was ninth in the team standings with 31 points, beating Auburndale (22), Assumption (17) and Prentice (8). Stratford handily won the meet with 118 points. Edgar was second with 80.5 points, followed by Marathon (65), Abbotsford (56.5), Phillips (56), Athens (53), Chequamegon (43) and Newman Catholic (35).

As the schedule stands now, this was Rib Lake’s last indoor meet. The outdoor season is tentatively slated to start Tuesday at Edgar.