Richter a triple state qualifier; Losiewicz, relay team advance
WIAA DIV. 2 TRACK & FIELD
Another full night of work paid off for Medford’s Meredith Richter, who qualified for state in all three of her distance races, and the Raider boys got their 3,200-meter relay team and pole vaulter Gage Losiewicz through for first-time state appearances during Thursday’s WIAA Division 2 track and field sectional meet at Arcadia.
Richter’s remarkable month of May continued with the top-four finishes necessary in the 1,600-, 800- and 3,200-meter runs to get to this weekend’s WIAA Division 2 state championships at UW-La Crosse in each event. In the longest and last of those races, the 3,200, she had to make up some late ground to get into the top four, but she got it done.
Medford’s boys 3,200-meter relay team of Vincent Seidel, Josh Clark, Zach Rudolph and Silas Wipf had no trouble qualifying for state with their second-place finish and are starting to threaten Medford’s 2013 school record of 8:10.52. Losiewicz also had one of the big highlights for Medford in Thursday’s meet, setting a new personal-record height of 13 feet, 3 inches while taking second in the pole vault competition.
Medford went into the meet with 13 boys entries and 10 girls entries. With 21 points, the girls placed 10th in the meet’s team standings, while the boys finished 15th with their 20 points.
The WIAA state meet is set for Friday and Saturday at UW-L’s Veterans Memorial Stadium Complex with competition starting at 9:30 a.m. each day, though running events on Saturday don’t start until 10 a.m. Medford’s boys relay team will compete on Friday morning, while Losiewicz will compete on Saturday afternoon. The Division 2 girls 1,600- and 800-meter runs will take place on Friday, while the 3,200-meter race will be held late on Saturday afternoon.
Girls results
Richter, who set school records in four different events in May, ended the month with two thirds and a fourth in her distance runs Thursday.
The junior started her day with a fourth-place finish in the 1,600-meter race at 5:23.98. She got the last state berth comfortably with a 9.33-second margin over fifth-place finisher Mia Olson of West Salem and held the fourth spot throughout the race. Medford’s Lindsay Kahn was seventh in 5:45.36 to score two team points for the Raiders.
Nora Gremban of Northland Pines won the race in 5:04.84, while Barron’s Fran Peterson (5:14.36) and Osceola’s Rachel Ulrich (5:16.43) also qualified for state.
Based on sectional times, Richter is the 14th seed in Friday’s state race. Gremban is ranked third behind Mikaela Helling of Two Rivers (4:58.23) and Lilie Fouts of Appleton Xavier (5:03.7). Richter will be running the mile at state for the first time on Friday.
Later in the sectional meet, Richter took third in the 800-meter run, passing two runners in the second lap and finishing in 2:21.66 to advance. Ulrich won this race in 2:17.29, while Gremban was second in 2:19.27. Jenna Hursch of Northwestern was one of the runners Richter got by in the second lap, but Hursch still qualified with a fourth-place time of 2:22.51, Amery’s Natasha Tiry came up short, taking fifth at 2:23.02.
Richter won a state medal in the 800-meter race last spring when she took sixth in a time of 2:20.51. Gremban is the defending state champion, having run last year’s race in 2:12.4. Ulrich and Gremban are the top two seeds in this year’s state race, while Richter is seeded eighth and will run in the second heat.
After the boys and wheelchair 800-meter races and the 200-meter finals, it was back on the track for the girls 3,200-meter race. Richter was in fourth place through one lap, then slid back to seventh where she hung for four laps. She crept forward a spot in each of the next two laps to get into fifth and then passed up two runners in an impressive eighth lap that was timed at 1:16.48 and was her fastest of the race. She finished in 11:32.67 to advance comfortably once again. West Salem’s Alena Donahue was fourth at 11:41.08 and beat Altoona’s Greta Peters by 0.72 seconds for the last state spot. Peterson won in 11:24.42, while Gremban was second at 11:30.91.
Kahn was 14th in her second race of the day for Medford, finishing in 12:54.35.
Richter is the 12th seed in this year’s state field. Helling is the top seed at 10:57.92. Peterson is sixth and Gremban is 11th, based on sectional times.
Medford junior Jaylin Machon was aiming for a return trip to state in the pole vault competition Thursday, but it was not meant to be. Machon, after tying her own school record of 10-6 at the May 22 regional, topped out a 9-6 on Thursday, which put her in seventh place. Five vaulters ended up at 9-6 behind the leaders Casidi Pehler of Arcadia (11-6), Kelly Fern of Amery (11-6) and Gabbie Neumann of Osceola (10 feet).
Ella Hawkins of St. Croix Central did not miss until 10 feet and earned the fourth-place spot among the vaulters who topped out at 9-6. West Salem’s Macey Tauscher and Baldwin-Woodville’s Anna Fritts both had two misses at 9 feet before they went out and tied for fifth. Machon had three early misses before she hit 9-6 on her first attempt and then went out at 10 feet. Colby’s Willow Oehmichen, the regional champion, also finished at 9-6 and placed eighth.
Machon added a 10th-place time of 17.67 seconds in the 100-meter high hurdles preliminaries. Eight advanced to the final, which was won by Osceola freshman Elletta Uddin in 14.65 seconds.
Medford junior Lindsey Klapatauskas finished 11th in the triple jump competition at 31-0.25, a slight improvement from her regional distance of 30-11.5. Kirkland Williams of Northland Pines won with a jump of 34-0.75.
Medford’s 800-meter relay team of Aliyah Pilgrim, Riley Clark, Brenley Beran and Machon finished 13th in 1:55.05, beating Northland Pines (1:55.54), St. Croix Central (1:56.87) and Ellsworth (1:57.07). Osceola won in 1:46.15, while Rice Lake (1:46.49), La Crosse Aquinas (1:46.71) and Mosinee (1:46.81) also qualified for state. The Raiders’ 400-meter relay team of Klapatauskas, Stacy Stolp, Beran and Machon was 15th in 54.44 seconds, beating Northland Pines (56.13). Rice Lake won in 50.14 seconds, while Amery (50.48), Osceola (50.99) and Prescott (51.04) got state spots.
Osceola won the team championship with 103 points, while Rice Lake (78), Amery (57), Mosinee (47) and Northland Pines (44) filled out the top five.
Boys send two
Medford’s boys got the meet off to a good start with the 3,200-meter relay team’s second-place finish in the first race.
Seidel, Clark, Rudolph and Wipf entered the race as the top seed based on regional times and held the lead briefly midway through the race, but their time of 8:13.17 easily got them to La Crosse behind La Crosse Logan’s 8:12.67. Their time was 6.04 seconds faster than their regional time and was the best time by a Medford team in that race this spring.
Altoona (8:23.81) and Prescott (8:24.85) also qualified.
Medford’s team, which includes alternate Adyn Gripentrog, is seeded seventh in the state field of 16 and will run in the second heat. Green Bay Notre Dame is the top seed at 8:05.24.
Some of the Raiders’ relay runners also competed in individual races during Thursday’s meet. Wipf placed sixth in the 800-meter run at 2:03.01, while Gripentrog was 11th at 2:06.4. Wipf was 1.78 seconds behind fourth-place finisher Lucas Walker of Stanley-Boyd. La Crosse Logan’s Dominic Kreiling won at 1:59.92. Clark was ninth in the 1,600-meter run at 4:45.36. He missed the eighth-place point by 3.54 seconds as Rice Lake’s Carter Kucko got that spot. Lakeland’s Owen Clark won in 4:26.12. Owen Clark also qualified for state with a second-place finish in the 3,200-meter race.
Losiewicz, a sophomore, didn’t have his best day May 22 at the Colby regional and started Thursday with two misses at 11-6, but he hit his third vault and then battled his way to becoming one of the last two vaulters standing at the end of the competition. There were five left at 13-3, but only he and Mauston’s Eli Hallwood hit that height. That got Losiewicz past his previous best of 13 feet, set at Marshfield on May 12. Hallwood went on to finish at 14 feet to win the sectional title, while Ian Kalin of Northwestern and Carter Mika of Ashland emerged from the tie at 13 feet to advance to state. Zack Boes of Stanley-Boyd, a common opponent for Losiewicz during the season, wound up making it to state as well as an extra qualifier.
Losiewicz is the sixth seed in the state field of 18 vaulters, led by Hallwood and Big Foot’s Kaden Rambatt at 14 feet.
Medford also competed in the meet’s other three relays Thursday.
The 800-meter team of Anakin Stokes, Cory Lindahl, Jose Herrera and Charlie Kleist placed ninth in 1:33.29, 0.44 seconds behind eighth-place La Crosse Logan. Lakeland won the race in 1:31.21, while West Salem (1:31.56), Prescott (1:31.73) and Ellsworth (1:31.8) advanced. The 1,600-meter team of Kleist, Clark, Rudolph and Wipf was 10th in 3:35.34 and was 1.45 seconds behind eighth-place Altoona. La Crosse Logan won in 3:25.84, followed by Osceola (3:28.27), Prescott (3:28.45) and Lakeland (3:28.64).
The 400-meter team of Stokes, Evan Paul, Lindahl and Kleist was 14th in 45.59 seconds, beating Colby (45.61) and Ashland (45.84). Aquinas won in 43.14 seconds, followed by Northland Pines (43.76), Elk Mound (43.77) and West Salem (43.9).
Owen Stockwell, a junior, got a team point for Medford by placing eighth in the triple jump competition at 39-4.5. Paul, a sophomore, was 13th at 38-3. Both had snuck over 40 feet at the regional to get to the sectional meet. La Crosse Logan’s Avin Smith won at 43-0.75, while Northland Pines had two state qualifiers in runner-up Jack Gjovik (42-5.75) and fourth-place jumper Ryan Muench (4010).
Stokes, a senior, closed out his career with an 11th-place finish in the 200-meter dash preliminaries at 23.44 seconds, a personal-best time. He was 0.3 seconds away from making the final, won by Collin Conzemius of Aquinas in 21.72 seconds.
Sophomore Caleb Scoles was 12th in the 400-meter dash at 55.19 seconds, which is a new personal-best time. Osceola’s Addison Uddin won that race in 50.42 seconds. Sophomore Paxton Rothmeier was 12th in the 110-meter high hurdle prelims at 18.1 seconds. He was 1.76 seconds away from making the final, won by Logan’s Smith in 15.23 seconds.
La Crosse Logan took home the championship plaque by scoring 74.5 points. Lakeland was second with 60 points, followed by Osceola (52), Mauston (51) and Aquinas (47).
