WIAA DIV. 2 TRACK & FIELD - THE RACE TO STATE BEGINS
The post-season push began Tuesday for Medford’s track and field teams, who advanced 11 boys entries and eight girls entries with top-four event finishes during the WIAA Division 2 Bloomer regional.
The boys placed second out of nine teams, falling just shy of earning the regional championship plaque. Altoona outscored them 126-120. Those two teams were well ahead of the rest of the pack.
The girls took fourth with 79.5 points, beating Altoona by 3.5 points for that spot. Bloomer won the regional plaque with 127 points, beating Tomahawk (108) and Stanley-Boyd (98.5).
Sectional competition is set for Friday at Durand-Arkansaw, where the top four finishers in each event will qualify for next weekend’s WIAA Division 2 state championships at UW-La Crosse. Friday’s meet starts at 3 p.m.
Boys results
Medford’s boys won regional championships in five events. Will Daniels continued his late-season surge in the hurdles, winning both titles. Evan Paul won the triple jump, Gage Losiewicz took the pole vault title and the 1,600meter relay also kept up its late-season success, ending the meet with a convincing win.
Daniels set personal-best times in both of his wins as he hopes to contend Friday for a state berth or two.
In the 110-meter high hurdles, Daniels had the top preliminary time of 16.32 seconds, while Luke Klapatauskas also qualified for the final by taking seventh at 18.94 seconds. Daniels lowered his time to 15.89 seconds in the final, winning by 0.69 seconds over Elk Mound’s Rownan Soul-Stewart.
Klapatauskas got down to 18.35 seconds and finished fifth 0.61 seconds shy of advancing.
In the 300-meter intermediates, Daniels finished in 41.46 seconds to win by 1.13 seconds over Elk Mound’s Adam Roder. Klapatauskas again came in fifth, this time missing advancement by 0.49 seconds with his time of 44.81 seconds.
Based on regional times, Daniels will enter Friday’s sectional as the fifth seed in the 300 and the ninth seed in the 110 highs.
Losiewicz’s quest to get back to state competition in pole vault, which he did two years ago, got started with a regional championship height of 12 feet Tuesday. He and teammate Jordan Lavin took the top two spots and advanced to Friday. Lavin equaled his personal-best from the GNC meet at 11 feet, 6 inches. Raider Axel Brushaber was 10th by clearing 9 feet. As always, the sectional competition should be fierce. Nine qualifiers posted heights of 12-6 or better in regional meets Tuesday.
Paul’s regional title in the triple jump was earned with a personal-best distance of 42-1. He’s not the only Raider going to Durand in that event. Paxton Rothmeier placed fourth Tuesday at 39-9.75, beating out Merrill’s Jayden Chase by 13.25 inches to get the last spot. Paul finished 6.75 inches ahead of runner-up Deion Chesmore of Altoona and is the eighth seed in the event Friday based on regional distances.
Rothmeier, Sawyer Hoops, Paul and Hayden Koester won the 1,600-meter relay in 3:38.35, which is not that group’s fastest time of the spring, but it was enough to win Tuesday’s race by 2.82 seconds over Antigo. Bloomer (3:41.57) and Tomahawk (3:42.25) also advanced. The Raiders are going to have to put together their best race Friday to have a chance. They’re the 11th seed going into the sectional race.
Senior Erich Moretz continued his strong first season as a shot putter for Medford. He is the regional runner-up in the event after getting off a throw of 440.5 that easily beat third-place finisher Jax Hanson of Merrill (41-4.25) and trailed Mosinee’s Jackson Lindell by 22 inches. Moretz also was 14th in the discus at 97-1. In that event, Medford sophomore Logan Langdon ended his year with a personal-best throw of 124-6 that put him in sixth place, less than 3 feet away from advancing.
Brandon Curtis put together a solid night of distance running, qualifying for the sectional in two events. The senior took third in the 3,200-meter run at 10:37.94 to easily qualify for Friday. Tomahawk’s Dominic Boos was a distant fourth at 11:02.61. Bloomer’s Seth Rogge (10:09.78) and Altoona’s Jude Kane (10:34.62) were the top two finishers. Raider Evan Pagel got the eighth-place point at 12:32.68. In the 1,600-meter run, Curtis set a personal-best time of 4:50.42 and got the fourth and final qualifying spot by nearly 13 seconds over Elk Mound’s Hudson Banaszak. Angus Hamland scored two seventh-place points for Medford at 5:14.44. Rogge won in 4:28.05.
The 800-meter relay team also qualified for the sectional with its thirdplace finish. The team of Hoops, Levi Zuleger, Koester and Paul finished in 1:33.8 and beat fourth-place Elk Mound by 0.21 seconds. Altoona (1:31.64) and Stanley-Boyd (1:32.63) were the top two teams.
Medford’s 400-meter team of Colton Long, Zuleger, Hoops and Rothmeier placed fifth in 46.98 seconds, falling 0.06 seconds shy of fourth-place Elk Mound. The 3,200-meter team of Curtis, Hamland, Judah Wipf and Anthony Seidel was sixth in 9:05.58, 6.24 seconds behind fourth-place Elk Mound.
Paul and Rothmeier tied for sixth in the 100-meter dash preliminaries at 11.69 seconds and advanced to the final. Paul took fifth there in 11.52 seconds, coming up 0.2 seconds behind fourth-place finisher Hunter Hibbard of Altoona. Rothmeier was eighth at 11.83 seconds. Caleb Scoles was fifth in the 400-meter dash at 53.65 seconds and missed advancing by 0.02 seconds behind Merrill’s Tyler Spade. Koester was 10th at 56.81 seconds. Zuleger was seventh in the 200-meter dash at a personal-best 24.73 seconds to put two points on the board.
Additionally, Seidel (2:20.75) and Wipf (2:21.78) were 11th and 12th in the 800meter run and Damien Dums was 11th in the long jump at 16-3.75.
Elk Mound took third in the team standings with 92.5 points, followed by Mosinee (84.5), Stanley-Boyd (75.5), Bloomer (64), Antigo (58), Tomahawk (51) and Merrill (29.5).
Girls results
Rivalee Stokes won the regional championship in the discus and qualified for the sectional in the shot put, Avery Losiewicz punched her sectional ticket in three events and Lindsay Kahn advanced in two more during Tuesday’s girls meet.
Fresh off her school-record 123 feet at the GNC meet Thursday, Stokes won Tuesday’s discus title with a throw of 1179, easily defeating runner-up Isabella Verhasselt of Mosinee (100 feet). Five sectional qualifiers had better throws and Rhinelander’s Libbey Buchmann also threw 117-9 at that regional. Stokes got the fourth and final qualifying spot in the shot put at 28-9.75, beating Verhasselt by 5.75 inches. Merrill’s Merin Yates won that event at 31-2.75. Raider Naomi Thomas added a 15th-place throw of 24-6.5.
Losiewicz cleared 9 feet to take second in the pole vault competition, a foot behind Tomahawk’s Alicia Voermans. Raider Emily Kiselicka tied for sixth at 66. In the hurdles, Losiewicz placed second in the 100-meter high hurdles final at 16.95 seconds, 1.42 seconds behind winner Allie Robel of Elk Mound and she was third in the 300-meter hurdles at 50.53 seconds. Robel won that in 47.25 seconds. Medford’s Cora Semrau was seventh in the highs at 19.86 seconds and ninth in the 300s at a personal-best 57.25 seconds.
As she did in the GNC meet, Kahn entered all three long-distance races and nearly qualified for the sectional in all of them. Her best finish was second in the 800-meter run, where she finished in 2:32.73 behind Altoona’s Abbie Hoage (2:24.43). She got the fourth qualifying spot in the 1,600-meter run at 5:43.22, beating Tomahawk’s Abbie Rosenmeier by 11.83 seconds. In her last race, the 3,200meter run, Kahn placed fifth in 13:14.4 and didn’t have enough in the tank to stay with the top four. Tomahawk’s Alli Palmer was fourth in 12:54.7. Bloomer star Ciara Hartman won in 10:55.82.
Willow Dassow got the eighth-place point for Medford in the 800 at a seasonbest 2:43.84 while Ella Dassow was 10th at 2:45.56. Carly Koski was 12th in the 1,600 at 6:43.67. Those three did advance to the sectional in the 3,200-meter relay. Joined by Autumn Cooley, they took fourth in a season-best 10:57.75 and will join Bloomer (9:31.48), Altoona (10:07.9) and Tomahawk (10:43.09) at the sectional.
Stokes very nearly qualified for the sectional in the 100-meter dash. She was a tenth of a second behind Taylor Frinack of Elk Mound and took fifth in the final at 13.41 seconds. Freshman Jordyn Grant got the eighth-place point at 13.93 seconds. Stokes was 0.04 seconds faster in the prelims. Alexis Zuleger (14.93) was 14th.
Aliyah Pilgrim was sixth in the 200and 400-meter dashes with times of 29.0 seconds and 1:04.05. Zuleger was 10th (30.73) and 13th (1:10.93). Grant was eighth in the 200 (29.42) and Cooley was eighth in the 400 (1:06.84). Grant scored three more points with a sixth-place finish in the triple jump (31-3.75). Toryn Rau was 12th in the long jump at 13-5.75.
Mosinee was sixth in the team standings with 67 points, followed by Elk Mound (61), Merrill (55) and Antigo (13).
