Hoping for even better next time on the course

MEDFORD CROSS COUNTRY

The Medford Raiders are hoping their first look at the Colby High School cross country course on Saturday is just a sign of what’s to come when they return for the WIAA Division 2 sectional meet on Oct. 21.

Taking advantage on an ideal September morning and the relatively-flat layout, the Raiders set several season- or personal-best times while winning the team championships in three of the four high school races. The varsity girls made it a perfect four for four on the young season, while Medford swept the JV races.

The varsity boys were third, just seven points behind runner-up and Great Northern Conference rival Rhinelander with Stevens Point Pacelli winning the title.

Senior Meredith Richter earned her fourth straight individual championship to start the season while leading Medford to the girls’ team title. She ran with Stratford’s Kayla Casperson in the first mile, but then pulled ahead and steadily widened her margin the rest of the way while finishing in a season-best 19:23.2. It was the secondbest time of her career, trailing only her record 19:14.9 from last year’s Medford Invite. Casperson was 64 seconds behind in 20:27.3.

Sophomore Lindsay Kahn set a new personal-best time of 21:02.1 and took third 9.5 seconds ahead of Colby’s Casey Reynolds, who she ran with step for step in the middle of the race before pulling away. Medford’s big mover of the day was sophomore Mallory Richter, who was the team’s fifth scorer going into the last mile. She picked off several runners in that last mile, including two teammates, to place seventh in a seasonbest 21:48.5.

Those two teammates Richter passed, Ella Daniels and Morgan Liske, were 10th and 11th in the field of 51 runners. Daniels came in at 21:55.9, while Liske, who was Medford’s third runner for a long portion of the race, was 11th at a season-best 21:58.8.

Junior Ella Dassow came in 16th at 22:44.7, improving her season-best time by 49 seconds while freshman Willow Dassow was 20th in 23:32.9.

The Raiders totaled just 30 points to outscore Colby (51), Stratford (63), Rhinelander (83), Columbus Catholic (146) and Spencer (165). Six more teams did not field enough runners to earn a team score.

No one was catching Columbus Catholic’s Isaac Scheer as he led the boys race wire to wire and won in 16:41. But Medford’s Tanner Hraby did some catching up in his last half-mile to secure fourth place in a season-best 17:09.7, just behind Stratford’s Cree DeFoe (17:00.6) and Pacelli’s Luke Eiden (17:01.7). Hraby got by four runners in the home stretch, including Rhinelander’s Greyson Gremban, who took sixth in 17:20.7, and Stanley- Boyd’s Lucas Walker, who took fifth in 17:12.1.

Raider junior Brandon Curtis had the race of his prep career, cracking the 20-minute barrier for the first time and doing it in convincing fashion while finishing 26th out of 73 runners in 19:17.8. Seniors Logan Gubser and Nick Steliga continued to round into shape, taking 32nd and 33rd in improved times of 19:43.6 and 19:43.8. Freshman Peyton Ried set his new best at 20:15.9, good for 38th. Hudson Briggs lowered his time by 25 seconds to 21:05.7 and finished 45th. In just his second race back from injury, Will Daniels was 49th in 21:17.6, improving almost 1:20 from the Marshfield race Sept. 5.

Pacelli won the meet with 68 points, while Rhinelander got by Medford 105112. The Raiders were one point better than Colby-Abbotsford and four points ahead of Stratford. Columbus Catholic was sixth with 123 points, followed by Pittsville (154), Owen-Withee (167), Mosinee (180) and Loyal-Greenwood (212). Stanley-Boyd, Athens and Spencer were incomplete.

Medford edged Rhinelander 35-39 to win the JV girls race, which also included teams from Stratford (59) and Colby (82). Raider seniors Lillie Gleichauf (23:32.37) and Kylie Potvin (24:28.47) were second and third behind Rhinelander’s Hayley Schiek (23:17.43). Esme Anderson was sixth in 25:02. 37, Kayla Daniels was 10th in 25:39.6, Lauren Stark was 18th in 28:30.69 and Lexi Hraby was 20th in 29:02.64. Medford’s boys outscored Colby-Abbotsford 24-32. Evan Pagel was second out of 17 runners in 21:32.1, trailing only Jacob Raatz of Colby-Abbotsford (21:17.19). Jordan Lavin was fourth for Medford in 22:08.73, followed by Cullen Jones (22:44.37), Nevyn Gripentrog (23:20.23) and Logan Langdon in a muchimproved 23:26.91. Cash Carbaugh was 15th in 25:42.21. The Raiders will get tested Saturday at the 67th Bill Smiley Invitational hosted by Wausau East High School. Medford is classified as a Division 1 Small School in the meet. The JV girls will race at 10 a.m., followed by the varsity girls at 10:35 a.m., the varsity boys at 11:10 a.m. and the JV boys at 11:35 a.m.

Left: Medford’s Ella Daniels keeps up with the leaders early in the girls race during Saturday’s Colby-Abbotsford Invitational. Daniels got the last top-10 spot in the 51-runner race with a time of 21:55.9. Right: Raider Brandon Curtis emerges from the woods and makes his final push toward his best-ever varsity time of 19:17.8, which was good for 26th out of 73 finishers in Saturday’s boys race at Colby High School.