Raiders run down a record, earn a spot on state podium

WIAA DIV. 2 BOYS STATE TRACK & FIELD

It may not have been a state title, but it felt like one for Medford’s boys 3,200-meter relay team on Friday when it won the sixth-place medal with a school-record time of 8:05.72 at the WIAA Division 2 state championships at UW-La Crosse.

The record was the number-one goal for the combination of Zach Rudolph, Adyn Gripentrog, Josh Clark and Silas Wipf and they got it by a wide margin, surpassing the mark of 8:10.52 set at the 2013 state meet by Tyler Schumacher, Brett Ulrich, Cole Quednow and Kaylin Felix.

“We had the feeling that if we got that school record, the rest of it would take care of itself,” Rudolph said. “You’re probably going to be pretty fast breaking that record.”

As they figured they needed to do, all four runners set personal records in their 800-meter splits. The Raiders got the last spot on the awards podium by a 0.43-second margin over seventh-place Shorewood, who won the six-team first heat. They were just 0.35 seconds behind fifth-place Winneconne.

Notre Dame Academy of Green Bay was the top seed coming in and proved it by winning in 8:00.16, just ahead of Lakeside Lutheran (8:00.32). La Crosse Logan was third in 8:02.9 and McFarland took fourth in 8:03.98.

Medford’s times had been coming down significantly as it sought the right lineup and order to make the record happen Friday. Senior Vincent Seidel had played a key role in getting Medford qualified for state as Medford set times of 8:19.21 at the Colby regional and 8:13.17 at the Arcadia sectional.

“That was a huge confidence boost,” Clark said of the sectional time. “The race before that we were at 8:19, under 8:20. At that time, we were fifth or sixth in the state, so we were like we’re really doing great. Then to go into sectionals and PR by so much then, we were already running super fast.”

The state lineup in the 10-team second heat started with Rudolph, who had a strong finishing kick and got the Raiders to the first exchange in fourth place at 2:00.17, right behind Amherst (2:00.02), while McFarland was in first place at 1:57.86 ahead of Logan (2:00).

“It was a pretty big changeup,” Rudolph said. “I haven’t led a race since last year. It was a lot of nerves walking up there knowing you have to set a little bit of a pace, make sure you don’t fall behind and keep your team in it. It was scary. It was the scariest race I’ve ever ran. My heart was pounding before it. It was crazy.”

Gripentrog, the lone junior in the group, got the baton next. A first-year track athlete who finished 11th in the sectional’s open 800, Gripentrog kept Medford in the medal mix with a leg of 2:04.97. When he passed the baton to Clark, the Raiders were in sixth place at 4:05.13.

“It was a lot of pressure,” Gripentrog said. “We all PR’d and ran our fastest. We all did what we thought we could do. This is my first year of track. I think I did pretty well.”

“You couldn’t ask for a better first year (for Gripentrog),” Wipf said. “Not at all.”

Clark capped an excellent senior year of running, both in cross country and track, with a leg of 2:00.62. He had Medford’s baton in front for a moment, but he had the Raiders back into fourth place when he was done, right about where they wanted to be.

“I’ve been wanting to take it out hot every time I get that baton,” Clark said. “So I went out and my legs didn’t even feel like they were there. I just felt like they were floating. I passed three or four guys by the time I got to the 200 and I was thinking, ‘oh man, I might have went out too fast.’ But I kept going through the 400 and I wasn’t out of breath. My legs didn’t hurt or nothing but they started to wobble. I kept it going. I was in first with like 200 to go and then guys started coming up behind me. I’m super happy. I wanted to get Silas in as good of a position as I could. I’m pretty proud of it.”

Wipf knew the pressure was on him as he got the baton for the last 800 meters.

“To me it was more about competing,” he said. “I wasn’t worried so much about the time, except for the school record. But I just wanted to stay in that top group. I was so nervous getting the baton from Josh. Josh put me in a great position. I just stuck right behind Andrew Hackbarth from La Crosse Logan. I got passed in that last 200 but at least I kept us in that top group and PR’d by two or three seconds.”

Wipf’s leg was timed at 1:59.99. The Raiders, of course, didn’t know the time they were competing against for sixth place was actually Shorewood’s time from the first heat. Waukesha Catholic Memorial was the seventh finisher in the second heat. The Crusaders were almost two seconds behind Medford at 8:07.66.

“It’s everything,” Clark said. “We were thinking we had to run super fast because we were gunning for that record the whole season. The competition here did push it to another level. We had a great time.”

“When you’ve got somebody to run behind, it makes it a lot easier to stay in it in your mind,” Wipf said. “You just let them do the work and you trail.”

“It’s a storybook ending for our high school career,” Rudolph said.

Losiewicz 11th

Medford sophomore Gage Losiewicz had a solid debut in state pole vault competition Saturday afternoon, taking 11th out of 18 competitors at a height of 13 feet.

Only six vaulters finished the competition with better heights, including state champion Kaden Rambatt of Big Foot, who set a new Division 2 record at 15 feet, 2 inches. Losiewicz ranked fifth out of the five vaulters who finished at 13 feet due to the tiebreaking process with misses.

The starting height was 12 feet. Losiewicz missed on his first attempt and then cleanly hit the second one, which vault coach and Gage’s mom, Katie Losiewicz, said was big for him to relax and settle in to the competition.

Losiewicz had a pressure vault attempt at 12-6 after missing on his first two attempts, but he nailed that third try to stay alive. He bumped up three spots in the standings by hitting his 13-foot vault on his second try.

Coming into the competition off a personal- best height of 13-3 at the Arcadia height, the ultimate state goal for Losiewicz would’ve been to hit 13-6. He didn’t quite get there in his three tries, but he carries confidence and momentum into next season, after improving this year from a freshman best of 11-6 to his sectional height of 13-3.

Denmark’s Donovan Brady won the second-place medal by clearing 13-9. He didn’t miss until attempting 14 feet. That gave him the second-place spot over Mauston’s Eli Hallwood, who missed once at 13-6 before he got his first 13-9 try and settled for third.

Asher Patterson of Shoreland Lutheran, Carson Rolf of Kewaskum and George Herlache of Luxemburg-Casco earned medals by clearing 13-6.

Medford’s medal-winning members of the 3,200-meter relay team are (clockwise from top left) Josh Clark, Silas Wipf, Adyn Gripentrog and Zach Rudolph. Vincent Seidel was the state alternate.