MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD - Raiders make up for lost time by adding a trip to Bruce Invite

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

Needing to get more competition after their first two outdoor meets were canceled, the Medford Raiders found their way to the Bruce Invitational on Thursday and, not surprisingly, handily outscored the small-school competition there.

In the rainy conditions, more importantly than the team wins, Medford’s coaching staff recorded more valuable times and distances for their athletes as the calendar quickly approaches May and the time when decisions will need to be made for the conference and post-season meets.

This was just Medford’s second outdoor meet of the spring with the first coming just two days earlier.

The boys piled up 203 points and outscored Flambeau (114), New Auburn (111), Bruce (104), Phillips (60), Solon Springs-Northwood (35) and Prentice (17). Eighty-five of those points came in just the six field events.

Evan Paul won two of them. He hit the 40-foot mark in the triple jump for the first time this season with a best effort of 40 feet, 3.5 inches, which gave him a comfortable margin over New Auburn’s Stanley Lang (38 feet). With Damien Dums taking third at 36-8, Luke Klapatauskas taking fourth at 364.5 and Austin Crabb taking sixth at 36 feet, that was a 24-point event for Medford. Judah Wipf added a ninthplace jump of 305.5.

Paul also cleared the bar at 5-10 to win the high jump competition by 4 inches over Bruce’s Levi Nyhagen. Gage Losiewicz cleared the pole vault bar at a height of 12 feet to win that event. He got the tiebreaker edge over Flambeau’s Kyle Blackstock. Jordan Lavin and Klapatauskas both cleared 9-6 to take third and fourth place, while Axel Brushaber got over 9 feet to place fifth, making that a 25-point event for the Raiders.

Erich Moretz picked up another shot put win, this time getting a throw of 45-6 to beat his previous best by 6 inches. He beat Flambeau’s Chanse Ludescher by 4 inches. Medford’s Logan Langdon (32-2) and Alan Scheel (28-1) were 11th and 12th. Moretz was third in the discus at 105 feet, much improved from two days earlier, while Langdon was sixth at 92-4 and Angus Hamland was ninth at 79-11. Ludescher won at 124-5. Dums scored five points by taking fifth in the long jump at a seasonbest 17-7 and Crabb tacked on two more points with a seventh-place jump at 16-10, improving by 4.5 inches. Levi Zuleger (15-7) and Jaden Thao (14-6) were 11th and 13th.

On the track, Will Daniels was a double winner, taking both hurdles races. In the 110-meter highs, Daniels finished in 17.59 seconds to beat Bruce’s Bobby McCullock by 0.25 seconds, while Klapatauskas was third at 18.7 seconds. Daniels easily won the 300-meter intermediates in 43.64 seconds, 2.85 seconds ahead of McCullock.

Paul was second in the 200-meter dash at 24.3 seconds, 0.47 seconds behind New Auburn’s Chester Lang. Losiewicz was fourth at 25.77 and Crabb (26.33) and Dums (26.6) scored by taking seventh and eighth. Beck Mayrer got into the top 10 at 27.47 seconds.

Brandon Curtis earned a pair of thirds while taking on the task of running both long-distance races. He finished the 1,600meter run in 5:13.88, while Hamland was fifth at 5:28.67, Ayden Tyznik was eighth at 5:45.13 and Nevyn Gripentrog was ninth at 5:58.93. Flambeau’s Dakota Nelson (4:55.11) and Myles Lybert (4:58.13) were the top two finishers. In the 3,200-meter run, Curtis was timed at 11:20.1, while Evan Pagel was fifth in a season-best 12:50.77. Nelson won in 10:20.38, easily beating Evan Johnson of Phillips (11:06.37).

Sawyer Hoops took third in the 400meter dash at 55.18 seconds, just ahead of teammate Hayden Spangler (55.86). Anthony Seidel got third in the 800-meter run at 2:15.54, while Hamland got two seventh-place points at 2:34.26. Tyznik (2:35.87) and Gripentrog (2:36.72) were ninth and 10th. Scheel led Medford in the 100-meter dash, taking seventh at 12.51 seconds. Eric Paul was 12th in 13.03 seconds.

Medford’s team of Hoops, Zuleger, Daniels and Evan Paul won the 800-meter relay in 1:38.52, beating Flambeau by 1.74 seconds. Colton Long, Mayrer, Scheel and Dums were second in the 400-meter relay at 50.02 seconds, 2.59 seconds behind Bruce. Caleb Scoles, Spangler, Seidel and Hoops were second in the 1,600-meter relay at 3:55.35, trailing Bruce (3:46.71) and beating Flambeau (4:04.67). The team of Manny Espinoza, Wipf, Tyznik and Hamland was second in the 3,200meter relay at 10:08.81, trailing Bruce (10:02.29) but finishing well ahead of third-place Solon Springs-Northwood (10:21.07).

Girls highlights

Sophomore Avery Losiewicz had a big meet for Medford’s girls, winning two individual events, placing second in another and anchoring the winning 1,600meter relay team.

Losiewicz was clearly the meet’s top pole vaulter, clearing 9 feet to earn a 2foot margin over the next three vaulters. Medford’s Adalyn Dittrich was credited with second place with her 7-foot vault and Emily Kiselicka was sixth at 5 feet.

Losiewicz won the 100-meter high hurdles in 17.55, lowering her time from two days earlier by 0.33 seconds. She edged New Auburn’s Elise Branville by 0.07. seconds. Cora Semrau was sixth for Medford at 21.8 seconds. Losiewicz later ran the 300-meter low hurdles in 51.63 seconds to finish 1.52 seconds behind Branville. Dittrich was sixth in 1:06.09.

Medford won three of the four relays. Aliyah Pilgrim, Alexis Zuleger, Willow Dassow and Losiewicz finished the meet by taking the 1,600-meter race in 4:47.25, well ahead of Bruce (5:25.29) and Prentice (6:09.12). Jordyn Grant, Semrau, Kiselicka and Zuleger won the 800-meter race in 2:05.55, 1.71 seconds ahead of Phillips. Grant, Semrau, Maria Valverde Bautista and Zuleger won the 400-meter race in 59.8 seconds, 0.88 seconds ahead of Phillips. Ella Dassow, Dittrich, Amy Espinoza and Autumn Cooley ran the 3,200-meter relay in 12:54.87 to finish second behind Bruce (11:45.61).

Rivalee Stokes was second in the 100meter dash at 14.32 seconds and second in the 200-meter dash at 29.41 seconds. Pilgrim was right behind her in the 200 at 29.63 seconds. Cooley (14.95) and Kiselicka (15.88) were sixth and seventh in the 100. Sarah Knaack of Phillips won both races in 13.28 and 27.85 seconds.

Willow Dassow took second in the 800meter run at 2:55.4, while Ella Dassow (3:05.58) and Carly Koski (3:06.26) were fourth and fifth, making it a 17-point event for Medford. Flambeau’s Ashley Lawton won in 2:36.3. Lindsay Kahn was second in the 1,600-meter run at 5:45.41, just behind Bruce’s Zoey Kemmitz (5:44). Ella Dassow was eighth in 6:37.79. Koski added a third-place time of 15:17.48 in the 3,200-meter run.

Stokes added to her high-scoring meet by placing third in both throws. She reached a season-best 29-8 in the shot put, while Naomi Thomas got three points by taking sixth with a much-improved 24-5. Stokes had a distance of 93-4 in the discus, while Thomas was 11th at 53-3.

Grant was second in the triple jump at 31-6, just behind Lawton (32-6.5) in a battle of freshmen. Grant also took fourth in the long jump at 12-9.5. Cooley was third in the high jump by clearing 4-2, while Semrau tied for fifth at 3-10.

Team scores for the girls meet were: 1. Medford, 179.5; 2. Bruce, 120.5; 3. New Auburn, 82; 4. Phillips, 80; 5. Flambeau and Prentice, 52; 7. Winter, 24; 8. Solon Springs-Northwood, 2.

Next up for Medford is the Spencer Invitational on Friday, which is set to start at 3:30 p.m. A meet at Lakeland has been added for Tuesday before the Raiders go to the annual Otto Bacher Invitational in Merrill on May 9.

Avery Losiewicz