Seidel, Grunwald place in conference; Warner 2nd team at Madison

SPRING COLLEGE ATHLETE REPORT

Improved times and distances in track and field and some softball pitching success highlighted spring performances at the collegiate level by student-athletes from local high schools.

Here are some of the highlights from the spring season: Medford 2020 graduate Franny Seidel continued to improve in her junior season with the Minnesota-Duluth women’s track and field program.

Seidel competed in the 800- and 1,500-meter events for the Bulldogs during the outdoor season, closing with an eighth-place finish and a spot on the podium in the 800-meter run during the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) championships, which were hosted by Concordia-St. Paul May 11-13.

Seidel got the eighth and last qualifying spot for Saturday’s final by running Friday’s preliminary in 2:15.79. There were 30 competitors vying for spots in the final. Seidel got the last one by a 0.76-second margin over Annika Aho of Sioux Falls.

In the final, Seidel placed eighth again, this time at 2:18.33. Minnesota State’s MaKenna Thurston won the race in 2:10.62. UMD had four entrants in the race. Savannah Schley of Loyal was the highest Bulldog finisher, placing third in 2:12.56. Seidel added a point to UMD’s total of 40.2, which was good for seventh place out of 14 scoring teams. Minnesota State won the conference championship with 272.4 points.

Seidel set a personal-best time of 2:12.98 in the 800 while winning it at the May 3 Joe Sweeney Invitational, hosted by the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. She had the top time in a field of 21 runners, beating Hamline’s Alexandra Maddux by 0.41 seconds at the finish line. Seidel beat her previous best, which was set at the April 14 Jim Duncan Invitational, hosted by Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. There she won the race in 2:15.6. Again, there was a field of 21 runners. Caroline Sudbeck of Augustana (S.D.) was the runner-up, 0.59 seconds behind Seidel.

Seidel’s new personal-best time in the 1,500-meter run is 4:40.76, which was set at the St. Thomas Tomcat Invitational on April 7. She placed fourth out of nearly 70 runners in a race won by St. Benedict’s Fiona Smith in 4:31.94. She was eighth out of 82 entrants at the April 1-2 season-opening Wartburg Select meet with a time of 4:42.97. She also ran on a 4x400-meter relay team that took fourth out of 21 teams in that meet with a time of 4:01.59. The Bulldogs were just behind Northern Iowa (3:59.45), Winona State (4:00.21) and Wartburg (4:01.31).

Seidel was second out of 35 runners at Running on Hope Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota on April 26 with her time of 4:47.26. She was 5.03 seconds behind Maddux. Seidel was second out of 35 runners at the April 22 Holst Invitational, hosted by Concordia-St. Paul. She finished in 4:49.07, trailing Bethel’s Annessa Ihde by 2.71 seconds.

Ellee Grunwald, a 2021 Medford graduate, helped the St. Norbert College Green Knights capture their fourth straight women’s track and field championship in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) by placing fifth in the grueling 3,000-meter steeplechase during day one of the meet. St. Norbert hosted the meet May 5-6.

Grunwald’s time in the steeplechase was 12:37.3 and allowed her to add four points to the Green Knights’ team total of 207.5 for the weekend. St. Norbert easily outscored the Milwaukee School of Engineering (124) for the championship in the nine-team meet. The time was a new best for Grunwald, who finished seventh at 13:11.73 in the event at last year’s league meet.

Grunwald ran two other steeplechases during the 2023 season. She was second out of four finishers in 13:06.78 at April 15 Beloit Relays, trailing Ripon’s Angela Mosconi (12:30.19). She opened the spring by taking fifth out of eight entrants with her time of 13:23.85 at the April 2 Wisconsin Private College Championships hosted by Carroll University. Ripon’s Mikayla Flyte won it at 12:00.34.

Grunwald added an 11th-place finish at the NACC meet in day two’s 1,500-meter run with a time of 5:25.33, which was also the sophomore’s collegiate-best time. She beat her eighth-place time of 5:26.15 in an April 21 triangular with Lawrence and UW-Stevens Point.

In the April 6 St. Norbert Twilight meet, Grunwald was fourth in the 1,500-meter run at 5:29.12 and seventh in the 800-meter run at 2:44.88.

Dilan Schneider, a 2019 Rib Lake graduate, placed 17th in the hammer throw and 20th in the shot put for UW-Stevens Point’s men’s track and field team at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s outdoor championship meet, hosted by UW-Whitewater May 5-6.

Schneider, a senior, threw the hammer a personalbest 152 feet, 4 inches in the meet. His previous best throw of the season was 148-6, which was good for fourth place out of 27 entrants in the Pointers’ outdoor opener April 1 at UW-Platteville. UW-Platteville senior Justin Eichler was the conference champion, throwing 205-4 in the league meet. He also won the event at the Platteville opener with a throw of 190-1.

UW-SP finished seventh out of eight teams in the WIAC meet with 45.5 points. UW-La Crosse easily won the league title with 245 points with UW-Oshkosh (150) finishing second.

Schneider placed third in the shot put at the April 29 St. Norbert Invitational with a throw of 42 feet. He was 11.5 inches behind Beloit’s Emiliano Reyes. His UW-SP teammate, sophomore Austin Rennhack, won it at 4810.25. Schneider was 13th in the hammer throw at 12010.

Earlier in the school year, Schneider was 16th in the shot put (43-10) and 17th in the weight throw (49-9.25) at the WIAC Indoor Championships Feb. 24-25 at UWStout. His personal-best in the weight throw came in the Jan. 14 Pointer Alumni Open with a second-place distance of 55-5. He also set his collegiate-best in the shot put that day, taking fourth at 45-4.25.

Former Prentice-Rib Lake cross country standout Peyton Enders finished his 2023 season with the Concordia-St. Paul men’s track and field program by competing in the decathlon at the NSIC championships. He was seventh out of 10 competitors with 5,328 points, his highest score in four college decathlons. The 10 events in the decathlon include the 100-meter dash, 110-meter high hurdles, 400-meter dash, 1,500-meter run, long jump, shot put, high jump, discus, pole vault and javelin throw.

The junior and 2020 Prentice grad won the 1,500-meter race in his collegiate-best time of 4:38.97, easily beating Malakhi Stevenson from the University of Mary (4:54.08). He was fourth in the long jump at 20 feet, 5 inches, was sixth in the high jump at 5-9.25, was seventh in the 110-meter high hurdles at 17.04 seconds, seventh in the pole vault at a personal-best 11-5.75, eighth in the 400-meter dash at 54.8 seconds, eighth in the javelin throw at 106-3, 10th in the 100-meter dash at a personalbest 11.88 seconds, 10th in the discus at 67-7 and 10th in the shot put at 28-9.75.

Enders scored 4,366 points in his first decathlon of the season April 7-8 at the University of South Dakota’s Early Bird meet. He was third in the 110-meter high hurdles final at the April 22 Holst Invitational with a time of 16.67 seconds. He was 0.78 seconds behind winner Pryce Ferrin of Bethel College. Enders had qualified for the final with his fourth-place preliminary time of 16.89 seconds. He was on Concordia-St. Paul’s thirdplace 1,600-meter relay team in that meet. The team’s time was 3.38.86. Concordia’s A team won in 3:26.98.

Addison Warner, a 2021 Gilman graduate, earned second-team honors for the 2023 North Central Community College Conference All-Conference softball team for her work with the Madison College WolfPack.

Warner is a two-time all-conference selection. She went 2-3 with a pair of saves in 11 appearances and five starts for the WolfPack. The righthander worked 36 innings and finished with a 3.69 earned run average and 26 strikeouts. She leaves the program ranking 19th in career wins with eight, 20th in total strikeouts with 68, and and 16th in ERA at 3.18.

The team went 27-20 this spring, ending its season with a 14-1 loss to eight-time defending National Junior College Athletic Association Division III champion Rock Valley College in the championship game of the Region 4 Division II District B Tournament on May 16. Rock Valley, who hosted the tournament in Rockford, Ill., jumped ahead 11-0 with a three-run first inning and eight-run second. Warner took the loss in that game, lasting just two-thirds of an inning.

The third seed in the four-team tournament, Madison College knocked off two-seed Triton College twice in the double-elimination event 6-4 and 7-5 and also dropped a 9-1 decision to Rock Valley. Warner pitched 2.2 innings and got a save in the 7-5 win over Triton, striking out one and walking one.

The WolfPack got into the region’s final four by sweeping a best-of-three series with sixth-seeded Moraine Valley Community College 8-0 and 4-3 on May 9.

Warner struck out a season-high seven batters, walked only one and allowed four hits and two earned runs over five innings in a 10-2 win over Joliet Junior College on April 27. She struck out six batters, walked three and allowed four hits and three earned runs in five innings in a 12-4 win over Rock Valley College on April 5.

Warner pitched all six innings in a 4-0 loss to Iowa Lakes Community College and allowed just one earned run while striking out two and allowing six hits. Warner had a two-inning save May 2 in a 5-3 win over Bryant and Stratton College. She struck out two hitters.

Laurissa Klapatauskas, a 2022 Medford graduate, pitched 15.1 innings over seven appearances with one start and went 1-0 with a 2.28 earned run average for the Loras College (Iowa) Duhawks.

The Duhawks went 21-15 overall with a 9-7 mark in the American Rivers Conference that put the team in fifth place in the final regular-season standings. Loras lost its A-R-C tournament opener to fourth-seeded Wartburg 6-2 on May 12. Wartburg went on to win the tournament championship, beating top-seeded Coe College 2-1 in the semifinals and secondseeded Luther 9-3 in the final.

Klapatauskas struck out three in three scoreless innings in a 5-2 loss to Edgewood College in a game played in Peoria, Ill. on March 3, pitched 4.1 innings and allowed just one run in her lone start in a 3-2 loss to North Park March 17 and struck out two while allowing three hits in three scoreless innings in a 5-0 win over the University of New England on March 14. Her first college win came March 18 in relief in a 9-8 victory over Bowdoin College.

Ellee Grunwald

Addison Warner