Richter gets 400 record; both Medford teams 2nd in GNC

GNC TRACK & FIELD

Meredith Richter set her third school record of the month as the girls continued to knock at the Great Northern Conference championship door, while Medford’s boys rose to a second-place finish as well in Tuesday’s track and field championships hosted by Lakeland Union High School.

Richter broke the girls track program’s longest standing record with a time of 59.88 seconds in the 400-meter dash, breaking the record of 59.9 seconds that had been held since 1981 by Brenda Blume. That time was good for second place Tuesday behind Lakeland’s Grace Kern, who finished in 59.57 seconds.

Richter also broke the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter school records earlier within the previous 10 days.

The girls finished second in the team standings behind Mosinee for the third straight year. The Indians outscored Medford 135.17-113.33 to earn another GNC trophy. Northland Pines (104) and Antigo (101) were far behind in the closely-contested meet. Lakeland had 93 points to take fifth ahead of Rhinelander (78) and Tomahawk (71.5).

The girls had nine top-three finishes with one win, which came from Jaylin Machon in the pole vault. She defended her 2022 title by going 6 inches higher this year, clearing the bar at 10 feet. Machon wasn’t seriously challenged, winning the competition by 2 feet. Raider Lillie Gleichauf added two seventh-place points by clearing 6 feet, 6 inches.

Richter had two more second-place finishes while competing against the GNC’s top runner, Nora Gremban of Northland Pines. Just before her record-breaking 400-meter time, Richter took second in the 1,600-meter run at 5:40.53, well ahead of third-place Lillian L’Esperance of Antigo. Gremban won in 5:09.09. The Raiders got additional points with a fifthplace time of 5:49.38 from Lindsay Kahn and an eighth-place time of 6:04.64 from Ella Daniels.

In the 800-meter run, Richter finished in 2:30.5, 7.63 seconds behind Gremban. Kahn and Daniels again added points. Kahn was sixth at 2:39.75 and Daniels was eighth at 2:48.92.

Kahn added six points with a thirdplace finish in the 3,200-meter run with her time of 12:45.98. Gremban won that too in 11:52.6, while Lakeland’s Sylvia Meza just got by Kahn at 12:45.17.

Machon wasn’t done at the pole vault, either. She took third in the 100-meter high hurdles for the second straight year with a finals time of 17.62 seconds. She ranked second in the preliminaries at 17.4 seconds, but in the final, Mosinee’s Malina Carattini (16.45) and Antigo’s Jaiden Radtke (17.39) were a bit quicker. Machon was fourth in the 300-meter hurdles at 52.0 seconds, a race led by two freshmen, Aila Bergman of Rhinelander (47.47) and Taelyn Jirschele of Mosinee (47.52). Raider Adalyn Dittrich was 12th at 1:02.12.

Lindsey Klapatauskas set a new personal-best in the triple jump at 32 feet and got up to second place behind Kirkland Williams of Northland Pines (33-7.25). Mosinee’s Alannah Wolfgram was third at 30-5.5. Medford’s Stacy Stolp was fifth at 30-3, 2 inches behind Bergman.

Medford finished second in two relay races. The 400-meter team of Klapatauskas, Alexis Zuleger, Stolp and Machon finished in 55.25 seconds to beat thirdplace Rhinelander by 0.11 seconds and trail Tomahawk by 1.86 seconds. The 1,600-meter team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Gleichauf, Riley Clark and Autumn Cooley had a time of 4:41.26 that trailed Rhinelander (4:24.36) but handily beat thirdplace Lakeland (4:50.19).

The other two teams took fourth. The 3,200-meter team of Daniels, Gleichauf, Clark and Ella Dassow started the meet by finishing in 11:27.62, well ahead of fifth-place Antigo (12:04.2). Lakeland won easily in 10:23.42. Zuleger, Stolp, Clark and Brenley Beran posted a time of 1:58.37 in the 800-meter relay, beating fifth-place Mosinee by 2.09 seconds. Tomahawk won that race in 1:51.49.

In field events, Rivalee Stokes had a strong day in the throws. She was fourth in the discus competition at 94-10 and she placed sixth in the shot put with a new best distance of 27-10. Rachel Wesle got the eighth-place shot put point at 27-2.75 and was 12th in the discus at 70-1. Klapatauskas was 13th in the shot put at 252.75.

Daniels and Stolp were a half-inch apart while taking seventh and eighth in the long jump at 14-3.25 and 14-2.75. Cooley was part of a three-way for eighth in the high jump. Clearing 4 feet, she split the last point in that event with Mosinee’s Jacqueline Kramer and Kate Schumitsch.

Pilgrim added a point with an eighthplace time of 1:06.86 in the 400-meter dash. Klapatauskas was 12th in the 100-meter dash preliminaries at 14.15 seconds. In the 20-meter dash, Pilgrim (29.14) and Beran (29.98) were ninth and 13th.

Big day for boys

The boys’ 150-point performance included three event wins, but that wasn’t enough to keep pace with Lakeland, who scored 184 points to end Rhinelander’s two-year reign atop the conference.

Northland Pines was third with 134.5 points, followed by the Hodags (103), Tomahawk (52), Mosinee (38.5) and Antigo (32).

Two of the wins came in relays. The 3,200-meter team of Vincent Seidel, Zach Rudolph, Lucas Borman and Adyn Gripentrog started the meet by taking its race in 8:41.32, which beat Antigo by 7.28 seconds. Tomahawk was a distant third at 9:07.27. The next relay was the 800-meter race which Anakin Stokes, Cory Lindahl, Gage Losiewicz and Jose Herrera won in 1:35.26, clipping Lakeland by 0.7 seconds. Tomahawk was third in 1:38.39. Herrera, Evan Paul, Itsael Medina and Lindahal made run at another championship, but fell 1.11 seconds short in the 400-meter relay. Their time of 46.87 seconds wasn’t quite enough to catch Northland Pines. Rhinelander was third in 47.23 seconds. The 1,600-meter relay team of Rudolph, Losiewicz, Silas Wipf and Caleb Scoles closed out the meet with a fourth-place time of 3:45.51 that beat Antigo by 1.2 seconds but trailed Lakeland (3:36.1), Northland Pines (3:37.49) and Rhinelander (3:39.96).

Medford’s lone individual champion was sophomore Paxton Rothmeier, who had his best race of the spring by far in the 110-meter high hurdles final and won it in 18.11 seconds, beating Mosinee’s Zander Deiniger by 0.16 seconds. Rothmeier had a preliminary time of 18.83 seconds. 0.68 seconds behind Deiniger, but he turned it on in the final. Raider Will Daniels added a fifth-place time of 19.78 seconds. Those two Raiders scored again the 300-meter intermediate hurdles with Rothmeier placing third in a personalbest 45.47 seconds and Daniels placing seventh in 47.6 seconds. Lakeland’s Talon Haling won in 43.48 seconds.

Josh Clark earned two runner-up finishes in distance races. The first came in the 1,600-meter run, where he came in at 4:41.97 and Gripentrog was fourth at 4:48.54. Borman was 10th at 5:23.55. Lakeland standout Owen Clark was bit too fast and won in 4:34.77. Gripentrog was 1.63 seconds behind Lakeland’s Levi Reimer.

In the 800-meter run, Josh Clark again took second behind Owen Clark (2:00.24). Medford’s Clark posted a time of 2:05.15 and had Wipf right behind him at 2:06.22. Gripentrog added two points by taking seventh in 2:17.59. Josh Clark ended a full day of work by pushing himself to a fourth-place finish in the 3,200-meter run at 10:49.14. Owen Clark won that race too in 10:16.27.

Wipf and Charlie Kleist gave Medford 11 points by taking third and fourth in the 400-meter dash at 53.59 and 53.95 seconds. The Raiders got 12 points in the 200-meter dash final with Stokes placing fourth in 24.17 seconds, followed by Kleist (24.23) and Losiewicz (24.57). Stokes (11.84) and Kleist (11.97) were fifth and sixth in the 100-meter dash final and actually had faster times in the prelims. Lindahl was 10th in the prelims at 12.12 seconds.

Losiewicz had Medford’s highest finish in the field, earning All-GNC secondteam honors by clearing 12 feet in the pole vault. Lakeland’s Kaleb Winter won it by getting 6 inches higher. Paul continued his late-season surge in three events. He went a personal-best 39-9 in the triple jump to place third, while Owen Stockwell took seventh at 38-3.75. Ryan Muench and Jack Gjovik of Northland Pines had the top distances at 41-7 and 4011.75. Paul cleared 5-8 in the high jump to place fourth and he went 19-3.5 to take sixth in the long jump, while Lindahl hit a personal-best 18-11 to take seventh.

Kleist earned five fourth-place points with a throw of 39-5 in the shot put. Jacob Rechtzigel was 14th in the discus at 88-3.

On to post-season

Medford will try to carry the momentum it’s built in the last two weeks into the post-season, which begins Monday at the WIAA Division 2 Colby regional. The top four finishers in each event will advance to the Arcadia sectional on May 25, where the top four in each event will qualify for state.

Monday’s regional features Medford, the host Hornets, Lakeland, Mosinee, Northland Pines, Rhinelander, Stanley-Boyd and Tomahawk. The meet starts at 4:15 p.m.

Medford plans to host its annual JV meet tonight, Thursday, at 4 p.m.

Medford’s Meredith Richter settles into second place during Tuesday’s girls 800-meter run.JEREMY MAYO/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS

Medford’s Lillie Gleichauf carries the baton during the Raiders’ second-place finish in Tuesday’s 1,600-meter relay.BRETT LaBORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES