MEDFORD CROSS COUNTRY PREVIEW - Girls want to start new state streak; boys could surprise

With the majority of both rosters back and some good work put in over the summer by many of those veterans, the Medford Raiders’ cross country teams carry optimistic outlooks to their 2025 seasons.

For the girls, this fall marks one last shot for a four-member senior class that has been part of two state team trips and would like to regain the Great Northern Conference championship it last helped Medford win in 2022.

The boys lost their top performer from last year, Brandon Curtis, but they bring back everyone else from a young squad that finished fourth in the GNC and 10th in the sectional meet held last October at Colby.

“It should be a good year,” second-year head coach Jake Rhyner said Monday. “There was a good core group that was pretty consistent all summer.”

The Raiders will get their first test today, Thursday, at the Timm’s Hill Invitational hosted by Prentice-Rib Lake. The event starts with the middle school race at 4 p.m., followed by the high school races. On Tuesday, Medford will head to the Mosinee Invitational at 9-Mile Forest Recreation Area in Wausau.

After bidding farewell to four-year mainstay Ella Daniels and Meredith Richter, one of the best to ever run with the Raiders, Medford’s girls team remained competitive in 2024, winning meets at Colby, Medford and Northland Pines and finishing second in four more meets, including the GNC meet at Northland Pines.

But for the first time since 2017 while competing as a Division 2 team, Medford did not qualify for the state meet, finishing fourth in a tough sectional meet behind champion Tomahawk, who also won it second straight GNC title, Shawano and Oconto Falls.

That largely fueled the motivation to put in the summer miles, with seniors from both teams leading many of those workouts on the Pine Line Trail. There were weeks where some team members worked four days a week, resting on Wednesdays.

“We worked hard a lot in the summer,” senior Morgan Liske said. “The weeks progressed in miles each time.”

Liske, Mallory Richter and defending GNC and sectional champion Lindsay Kahn were freshmen on Medford’s last GNC championship team in 2022 and helped Medford advance to state in 2022 and 2023. Esmeralda Anderson, the team’s fourth senior, has been a steady performer as well, earning spots in the GNC and sectional lineups last year.

“It goes by like a flash,” Kahn said. Spectators may have thought Kahn was going by like a flash as well when she peaked late last season. She hit personal bests while getting under the 20-minute mark with her wins at the GNC meet (19:41.1) and the Colby sectional (19:53.3). Kahn ran out of gas a bit at state, finishing 69th in 20:43.5.

“Lindsay is hungry,” Rhyner said. “She has been super disciplined.”

“You can only try to improve from there,” Kahn said. “I’m just trying to get PRs and trying to go back. Hopefully it’s with the team this time.”

Liske earned second-team All-GNC honors last fall with a 13th-place finish in the league meet. Richter got honorable mention in 19th place. Since enjoying early success, the seniors all said they’ve learned quite a bit about themselves and their sport that they hope to carry into their last season.

“I definitely feel I’ve learned a lot about pacing and how to work the course,” Kahn said.

“When Jake came, we learned a lot about heart rate and how to keep a correct heart rate for running,” Liske said. “That helps a lot.”

“We’ve learned the importance of, not easier training, but easier miles and more miles,” Richter said. “For me, it’s how to have fun with it and not stress out about it too much,” Anderson said.

Junior Willow Dassow and sophomore Greta Seidel also return as experienced varsity runners. Dassow got All-GNC honorable mention with an 18th-place finish last fall. Seidel missed honorable mention by one spot in 22nd place and she was Medford’s fifth runner in the sectional, taking 34th in her best time of the fall at 22:33.

Juniors Kayla Daniels, Josey Krug and Lauren Stark also return as does sophomore Isabelle Leischer.

The third Richter sister, Melanie, could make an impact at the varsity level “That’s exciting,” Mallory said. “I’m excited to have her to run with. She’s put in a lot of work.”

“You see an eye of the tiger coming from her,” assistant coach Stephen Reynolds said.

Savanna Brunner, Kyra Scheithauer and Destiny Whetstone round out the roster’s freshman class.

“I think the girls actually look really good,” Rhyner said.

“Making it to state (is the goal),” Liske said. “My main goal is to make it myself if the team doesn’t. But either way. Team would be better.”

“Definitely the goal is the girls team making it to state,” Mallory Richter said. “I didn’t have a great season myself last year, so I’m hoping for PRs.”

“I’m hoping for some PRs, some better grouping up with the team, good teamwork,” Anderson said.

“Definitely the PRs are what I’m really going for this year and just having fun,” Kahn said.

Boys could improve

The boys did not add any freshmen to their opening week roster, but all 10 runners on that roster ran with the Raiders last fall.

Evan Pagel and Will Daniels are the senior leaders, then it’s an even split of four juniors and four sophomores.

Corbyn Radlinger was the GNC’s top freshman a year ago, finishing 14th in the league meet to earn the last second-team spot. He ended the year statistically as the Raiders’ number-two runner. His time of 18:39.3 at conference was his season-best and he was 47th in the sectional at 19:04.2.

Daniels, junior Peyton Ried and sophomore Ace Arndt typically weren’t separated by much in meets as all of them were in the 19-minute range by season’s end. Daniels just missed All-GNC honorable mention with a 22nd-place finish. Sophomore Angus Hamland earned a spot in the lineup in the big meets at the end, taking 34th in the GNC and 79th in the sectional. Junior Jordan Lavin did too, taking 36th in the GNC and 60th with a solid sectional time of 19:34.

“We have potential to be good,” Pagel said Monday. “We have to drop some time off, but we can get up there I think.”

“The boys will be sneaky good,” Rhyner said. “Ace, Peyton, Will, Corbyn, Jordy Lavin, Evan, they all have the ability to run sub-18 or be right at that. Corbyn is the number-one freshman coming back in the conference. Ace and Corbyn are just different this year. They don’t look the same. They’ve grown up a little bit.”

Pagel is another senior, like the girls, who has steadily improved since arriving as a freshman. He set a personal-best time of 19:25.4 at last year’s sectional, good for 59th place. He was 35th in the GNC.

“I’ve learned how to breathe and conserve your energy throughout the race,” Pagel said.

Also looking to set more PRs this fall are juniors Nevyn Gripentrog and Isaac Damm and sophomore Manny Espinoza.

Medford will host its annual invitational on Thursday, Oct. 2. The Raiders are sending varsity teams to the University of Minnesota’s Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 20, which will take them out of Wausau East’s Smiley Invitational. The Raiders have also added the Merrill Invite on Sept. 27 this year to prepare for the WIAA Division 2 sectional that Merrill will host on Friday, Oct. 24 at the Merrill Area Recreation Complex.

Rhinelander hosts this year’s GNC meet on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Northwood Golf Course.

“Both teams have nothing to lose,” Reynolds said. “It’s all up in the air. If they want to grab it they can grab it. The sky’s the limit. They put in the work this summer.”