PART 2: COLLEGE ATHLETES FALL REPORT - Big fall season for former Runnin’ Raiders

PART 2: COLLEGE ATHLETES FALL REPORT

Part two of our fall update on local college student-athletes focuses on cross country, a sport four former Medford Raiders had highly successful seasons in.

Joey Sullivan, a 2022 Medford graduate, went from being a bit of a part-timer in the lineup as a freshman to an All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference performer and a key piece in the lineup in his sophomore season for the UW-La Crosse Eagles, who finished the fall as the NCAA Division III men’s runner-up.

Sullivan was UWL’s third finisher in the NCAA Division III championship meet, which was held Nov. 18 in Carlisle, Pa. The meet was hosted by Dickinson College.

Sullivan placed 59th out of 294 competitors in the 8,000-meter race with a time of 25:22.9, his third-best of the fall. His teammate, Ethan Gregg, a senior and La Crosse Aquinas grad, won the individual national championship at 24:02.4, ahead of UW-Whitewater’s Christian Patzka (24:20.7). Isaac Wegner, a senior from Durand, was UWL’s second finisher in the meet, taking 18th at 24:45.6.

The Eagles lost out on the national title by a heartbreaking one point. They totaled 159 points while Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.) scored 158 to win it. Had the teams been tied, UWL would have won the sixth-man tiebreaker. La Crosse was 10 points ahead of third-place North Central (lll.).

The Eagles qualified for the national meet by winning the NCAA Division III North Regional, hosted by UW-Eau Claire Nov. 11 in Colfax. Sullivan did not run in that meet.

Before that, Sullivan set his careerbest time of 24:56 while placing sixth at the WIAC Championships, hosted by UW-River Falls at Prescott High School on Oct. 28. The top seven finishers earn first-team All-WIAC honors. Five of those spots went to UWL runners. Patzka won it in 24:20.5, followed by Gregg (24:24.2), Grant Matthai (24:38.1) and Wegner (24:43.6). Whitewater’s Gunner Schlender was fifth in 24:49.3 and UWL’s Adam Loenser was seventh at 24:57.6.

With those high-finishing five, the Eagles easily claimed the WIAC crown with 22 points, 19 fewer than Whitewater. UWStout was a distant third with 117 points. There were 91 finishers in the men’s race.

Sullivan’s sophomore season began with a seventh-place finish and a time of 25:25.5 at the Carleton Running of the Cows meet in Northfield, Minn. Sept. 16. He was 9.9 seconds away from a top-five finish. The Eagles scored 36 points to easily outscore host and runner-up Carleton (75). UWL’s Elias Ritzke (25:15.6) and Gregg (25:15.8) were fifth and sixth.

The Sept. 30 Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh gave Sullivan and his teammates a chance to run against several Division I squads. UWL more than held its own, placing seventh out of 43 teams with 271 points. Yale won the College Gold men’s race with 101 points. The Eagles trailed fifth-place Penn State (203) and sixth-place Navy (203).

Sullivan placed 130th out of 393 finishers in the Gold Race with his second-best time of the season, 25:14.4.

Sullivan was 23rd out of 368 finishers in the 27-team UWL Jim Drews Invitational on Oct. 14. His time was 25:59.6. UWL dominated, scoring just 32 points to easily get by runner-up Paradise Valley Community College (113), which came from Phoenix, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering (114).

Alicia Kawa and Ellee Grunwald, both 2021 Medford graduates, also both earned all-conference honors this fall in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. They were fifth and sixth in the league’s championship meet, held Oct. 28 and hosted by Wisconsin Lutheran College at Greenfield Park in West Allis.

Kawa is a junior at Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW) after transferring from UW-Green Bay, while Grunwald is a junior at St. Norbert College.

The women’s race at the NACC meet, unfortunately, had a controversial finish as an on-course incident led the members of the lead group, about 20% of the field, to be directed off the course. The error was discovered quickly and the impacted runners were directed back on course. But the race results were compromised, forcing the NACC to vacate the team results. The NACC named CUW, St. Norbert College and Aurora University the tri-champions since all three teams had a reasonable chance to win the meet.

Kawa’s official time was 24:05.6, while Grunwald was right behind her at 24:08.8 in the 6,000-meter race. Kawa was the third CUW runner in the top five, following Ainara Sainz de Rozas, a Wisconsin Rapids Assumption grad, who took third in 23:22.4, and Emma Ahrens, who was fourth in 23:54.1. Grunwald was the Green Knights’ top finisher. The team had five runners in the top 16. Aurora’s Deyanneira Colon Maldonado was declared the winner in 23:10.4. The two former Raiders were on the same courses often this fall. They ended the season at the same NCAA Division III North Region Championships Sullivan and UWL as at Nov. 11 in Colfax. In the women’s race, Kawa finished 39th out of 214 runners in 22:56, her bestever NCAA 6K time, while Grunwald was 89th in 24:03.9, which also her best 6K time. Carleton won the women’s championship with 48 points, followed by UW-Eau Claire (68) and UW-La Crosse (77). CUW placed 11th in the team standings with 319 points and St. Norbert College was 14th with 405, winning a tiebreaker with UW-Stevens Point. Kawa was third and Grunwald was ninth in the Wisconsin Private College Championships hosted by Beloit College on Oct. 14. There, Kawa finished in 23:34, trailing Edgewood’s Ally Verbau- whede (22:58.2) and Ahrens (23:12). Grunwald’s time was 24:31.6. She was just 4.5 seconds away from a top-six finish and easily got into the top 10. Her teammate, Faith Mertzig was 10th in 24:39.2. CUW got past St. Norbert 29-54 to win the team title that day.

Their other joint appearance was the season-opening St. Norbert Tom Barry Invitational on Sept. 2. Kawa placed fifth in that 5K race in 19:34.67, while Grunwald was 15th in the field of 130 at 20:21.94. That is Kawa’s best collegiate 5K time. Green Bay’s Kelsey Radobicky won in 18:33.45. CUW won the team title with 51 points, while the Green Knights were third with 72, four points behind Ripon College.

Kawa finished second out of 78 runners in 23:02.7 in the Sept. 9 Ken Weidt Classic that CUW hosted. Ahrens was the only runner to beat her in the 6K race, finishing in 22:49.7. Kawa was 2.6 seconds ahead of third-place runner Kylie Smith of Carthage. The CUW Falcons won the meet with just 25 points, 13 fewer than Carthage.

While getting a preview of the Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax, Kawa posted a strong time of 23:19.2 while taking 22nd in the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Invitational Sept. 29 as the Falcons were ninth out of 25 teams. Kawa was 13th in 25:29.3 at the Lucian Rosa Invitational, hosted by UW-Parkside Sept. 23.

Grunwald set her best 5K time at 20:19.9 while finishing 85th in a field that included several Division I runners at the Sept. 15 National Catholic Invitational hosted by Notre Dame. The Green Knights held their own, taking eighth out of 11 schools. Notre Dame dominated with just 18 points, while Loyola (Ill.) was second with 60.

There were some Division I squads at the Sept. 29-30 Live in Louisville Cross Country Classic. Grunwald finished a solid 67th in 20:22.7 in that 5K race, where St. Norbert placed fourth with 265 points behind Trine (Ind.) (179), Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) (208) and Hope (Mich.) (219).

At the Sept. 8 Green Bay Phoenix Open, Grunwald was 47th with a 6K time of 24:54.9. St. Norbert was sixth in a sixteam field that included schools from all three NCAA division. Winona State won it with 24 points, 40 fewer than Michigan Tech and 44 fewer than Milwaukee.

Lastly but certainly not least, the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s bid for a third straight trip to the NCAA Division II women’s national championship meet did not materialize this fall, but 2020 Medford graduate Franny Seidel had a solid senior season with the Bulldogs, solidifying her role as one of team’s scoring runners.

Seidel’s best 6K time of the fall came at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s championship meet, held Oct. 21 and hosted by the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D. Seidel placed 26th out of 144 runners in 22:05.4 and was the Bulldogs’ second-ranked runner behind 18th-place Lauryn Renier (21:40.3), senior from Rochester, Minn. Winona State had the top two finishers in Lindsay Cunningham (19:28.7) and Kaylee Beyer (20:17.9).

The Bulldogs placed sixth out of 15 teams at the conference meet with 132 points. Winona State won it with 38, outscoring Augustana (S.D.) (57) and Mary (84).

From there, Seidel finished her season at the NCAA Division II Central Region Championships, hosted by Missouri Southern on Nov. 4. The meet was held in Joplin, Mo. Seidel ranked 51st out of 217 runners with her time of 22:16.4 and was, again, UMD’s second finisher behind Renier, who was 46th in 22:12.4. The Bulldogs were 11th in the team standings with 311 points, 16 behind 10th-place Minnesota State. Winona State won with 52 points, well ahead of Augustana (95). Last year, UMD was sixth at this meet and earned an at-large team berth to the national meet.

During the regular season, Seidel competed in four more meets for UMD.

She was sixth in the 3.11-mile UMD Open on Sept. 7 with a time of 19:06.7. The Bulldogs dominated the three-team meet with just 19 points, well ahead of St. Scholastica (51) and UW-Superior (72). UMD had seven of the top eight finishers. Renier won in 18:34.8.

On Sept. 1, Seidel finished 24th in the University of Minnesota’s Oz Memorial meet. This was a 5K race with Seidel finishing in 19:53.6, her best time at that distance as a Bulldog. With 86 points, UMD trailed Division I teams Minnesota (29) and Drake (72).

Moving up to 6K races, Seidel was 86th with a time of 22:54.8 at the Lewis Crossover in Romeoville, Ill. on Oct. 7, a meet that featured 33 teams from all NCAA divisions. UMD placed 14th. There were 317 competitors in the women’s race.

Back at the University of Minnesota for the Sept. 22 Griak Invitational, which included this year’s Medford Raiders in the high school competition, Seidel was a strong 27th out 391 finishers in the women’s Maroon Division. She hit the finish line in 23:23.6 as UMD’s top runner that day. Gianna Bomarito of Sonoma State (Calif.) won the race in 21:44.2. Seidel led UMD’s sixth-place finish, which came with 203 points. Augustana won the Maroon meet with 80 points, 26 fewer than Mary.

Joey Sullivan, a 2022 Medford graduate competes during UW-La Crosse’s Jim Drews Invitational on Oct. 14. Sullivan and the Eagles won this meet and later finished second in the NCAA Division III national championships. PHOTO BY JIM LUND/UWL ATHLETICS

Ellee Grunwald, a 2021 Medford graduate, competes during the season-opening Tom Barry Invitational hosted by St. Norbert College, where she placed 15th in the women’s race. The Green Knights placed third as a team in this meet. PATRICK FERRON PHOTO/COURTESY SNC ATHLETICS

Franny Seidel (119), a 2020 Medford graduate, was the number-two runner for most of the fall for the University of Minnesota-Duluth women’s cross country team, which placed sixth in the Northern Sun Conference and 11th at the NCAA Division II Central Region meet. PHOTO COURTESY OF UMD ATHLETICS