MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD - Boys looking like a contender, win Lakeland Invite

MEDFORD TRACK & FIELD

Two weeks away from the Great Northern Conference’s track and field championship meet, the Medford boys showed Tuesday they figure to be a contender by winning the Lakeland Invitational.

The 12-team meet, held under finally sunny skies and above-average temperatures, included all of the GNC teams except Mosinee, though entries of course could be much different in two weeks. Still, the Raiders’ convincing 152-118 margin over runner-up Lakeland is an encouraging sign. Lakeland is the GNC’s defending cochampion along with Northland Pines.

The girls also did well, taking third with 103 points and outscored every GNC representative except Lakeland. The host TBirds won the meet with 144 points, 20 more than Newman Catholic.

The Raiders will get another good chance to measure themselves against good local competition Friday at Merrill’s Otto Bacher Invitational with competition then set to start at 5 p.m.

Boys recap

The boys got 50 of their points with five first-place finishes, two of which came from junior Will Daniels in the hurdles and two more that were earned by relay teams. Senior Gage Losiewicz got the fifth. He won the pole vault competition, clearing the bar at 11 feet, 6 inches, a foot better than runner-up Charles Antonuk of Rhinelander.

Daniels set season-best times in his wins. First, he took the 110-meter high hurdles in 16.63 seconds, handily beating Rhinelander’s Ryley Hull by 1.94 seconds, while Raider Luke Klapatauskas was third in 18.86 seconds. Later, Daniels ran the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 43.3 seconds, comfortably beating Lakeland’s Owen Johnson by 3.48 seconds.

Daniels also joined Levi Zuleger, Beck Mayrer and Damien Dums in winning a thrilling 800-meter relay by 0.01 seconds over Rhinelander with a time of 1:37.64. The 1,600-meter team of Sawyer Hoops, Evan Paul, Hayden Koester and Paxton Rothmeier closed out the meet with a winning time of 3:39.77. They beat the team from Phillips by 4.19 seconds.

Medford placed second in the other two relays. The 3,200-meter team of Ayden Tyznik, Judah Wipf, Angus Hamland and Anthony Seidel started the meet by finishing 9:24.54, beating Rhinelander (9:32.74) and Tomahawk (10:26.57) while trailing Phillips (9:08.18). Colton Long, Mayrer, Eric Paul and Klapatauskas nearly got the 400-meter race, finishing 0.04 seconds behind Tomahawk in 48.12 seconds. They beat Newman Catholic by 0.46 seconds for that spot.

The Raiders got a large chunk of their points in field events, including three second-place finishes.

Erich Moretz scored 14 points by taking second in the shot put with a toss of 438.75 that was beaten only by Rhinelander’s Logan Schwinger (46-6) and third in the discus at a personal-best 113-1. He was 14 inches shy of second place in that event.

Evan Paul cleared 5-10 to take second in the high jump. He came up short in the tiebreaking process against Tomahawk’s Nathan Rosenmeier, while Koester got the eighth-place point at 5-2. Paul added a fourth-place distance of 19-3.75 in the long jump, an event won by Kayleb Sawyer of Antigo at 20-6.25. The Raiders got 14 points in the triple jump with a personalbest distance of 38-5.5 from Dums that took second and a jump of 37-2.5 from Klapatauskas that took third. They trailed Lakeland’s Marshall Holmquist (41-7).

Back on the track, Medford got a second-place finish from Hoops in the 400-meter dash with his best time of 55.02 seconds and an eighth-place point from Hayden Spangler at 57.19 seconds. Newman Catholic’s Nolyn Lindner won easily in 50.67 seconds.

Caleb Scoles made a push in his first 200-meter dash of the spring. The senior finished in 23.89 seconds and was the runner-up behind Lindner (22.69). Hoops was seventh in 24.81 seconds and Zuleger was 10th in 25.05 seconds.

Brandon Curtis scored in both longdistance runs. He was third in the 3,200meter run at 10:50.88, not far behind winner Avrom Barr of Rhinelander (10:38.76) and James Vollendorf of Phillips (10:46.15). Curtis was fourth in the 1,600-meter run at 5:00.09. Rhinelander’s Greyson Gremban won in 4:43.13.

Rothmeier took fourth in the 100-meter dash with his best time of the spring, 11.73 seconds, while Long was 10th at 12.11 seconds. Lindner won in 11.3 seconds. Seidel added three points with a sixthplace time of 2:15.51 in the 800-meter run. In a 400-meter relay throwers race, Logan Langdon, Moretz, Jonathan Bartnik and Cade Wellman took fourth for Medford in 53.39 seconds. They beat four other teams and trailed Tomahawk (50.5), Rhinelander (52.67) and Phillips (53.1).

Rhinelander was third in the boys team standings with 112 points, followed by Phillips (81), Newman Catholic (77), Tomahawk (63), Antigo (44), Bessemer, Mich. (22), Northland Pines (8) and Wakefield-Marenisco, Mich. (7).

Girls highlights

Medford’s girls team got a win from Avery Losiewicz in the 100-meter high hurdles and seven second-place finishes to account for most of its point total in Tuesday’s meet. Losiewicz had two of those seconds and was part of the 800meter relay team that also took second.

In the high hurdles, Losiewicz finished in a personal-best 17.33 seconds to beat Lakeland’s Norah Strasburg by 0.64 seconds, while Raider freshman Cora Semrau took sixth in a season-best 20.13 seconds. Losiewicz later added a secondplace time of 50.48 seconds, another season-best, in the 300-meter hurdles. She was 1.72 seconds behind Newman Catholic’s standout Mel Severson. Raider Adalyn Dittrich was 12th in a season-best 1:02.16.

Losiewicz tied her season-best of 9 feet in the pole vault and won the tiebreaker for second place over Tomahawk’s Alicia Voermans. Rhinelander’s Macy Myers won at 10-10, while Dittrich (6-6) and Raider Emily Kiselicka (6-0) were 10th and tied for 11th.

Rivalee Stokes continues to emerge as a scorer for Medford. The junior took second in the discus with a season-best throw of 110-4 that was 35 inches behind Mercer’s Eiley Schoeneman and second in the shot put with a toss of 30-5.5. Schoeneman won that at 36-4.5. Stokes added a fourth-place time of 13.37 seconds in the 100-meter dash, another best time of the spring.

Lindsay Kahn earned second place in the 1,600-meter run at 5:47.09. She trailed Sarah Knaack of Phillips (5:38.56). Carly Koski was 10th at 6:47.24. Kahn later took third in the 800-meter run at 2:34.96, while Raider Ella Dassow was seventh in a season-best 2:47.8. Leah Harper of Phillips won in 2:26.04. Koski added a third-place time of 14:55.24 among six entrants in the 3,200-meter run.

Jordyn Grant took second in the triple jump at 30-1 behind Newman’s Brecklyn Lindner (33-7). She also was 10th in the 200-meter dash at 29.25 seconds. Toryn Rau was sixth in the long jump at a seasonbest 13-4.5 and Autumn Cooley got a point by taking eighth in the 400-meter dash at an improved time of 1:07.4. She tied for ninth in the high jump as well at 4-2.

The relay crew was led by a secondplace finish by the 800-meter team of Grant, Semrau, Kiselicka and Losiewicz, which finished in 1:57.02 behind Newman (1:52.63). Ella Dassow, Dittrich, Willow Dassow and Cooley were third in the 3,200-meter relay at 11:50.73 behind Lakeland (10:16.38) and Phillips (10:36.95). The 400-meter team of Grant, Semrau, Kiselicka and Alexis Zuleger took fourth in 57.52 seconds behind Rhinelander (52.47), Newman (55.27) and Lakeland (55.89).

In a mixed 1,600-meter relay, Medford’s Aliyah Pilgrim, Evan Paul, Alexis Zuleger and Koester finished second out of seven teams in 4:03.53. Only Tomahawk was faster in 3:57.91.

Rhinelander was fourth in the team standings with 84 points, followed by Phillips (79), Tomahawk (52), Mercer (36), Northland Pines (22), Antigo (18), Butternut (11), Wakefield-Marenisco (8) and Bessemer (5).