By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
The Merrill boys and girls track team competed hard at Medford on Tuesday, with the boys placing second and the girls taking fourth in the six team meet.
“Medford was the first time we hit an outdoor track since missing the Wausau West meet last week,” said Merrill head coach Guy Pawlicki, “Our kids performed well. The boys finished second overall, and the girls finished fourth. Team standings really do not mean much to me. It all comes down to if we are improving and Medford showed that we are.”
On the boys side of things Tyler Wolff take third place in the pole vault, with a height of 11-00.00. In the high jump Carter Jensen placed fifth, jumping a height of 5-04.00. Robert Oestreich took first place in the discus throw, with a toss of 127-02. Oestreich also placed fourth in the shot put, with a throw of 41-02.00.
For the runners, Merrill’s 4×800 boys relay team consisting of Dominic Laufenberg, Kyle Stellingworth, Callen Hoeppner and David Genrich, placed third overall with a run of 9:42.20. For the 110 Meter hurdles Jensen would take fourth place for the Jays, running a time of 18.3. Nik Zastrow ran hard and brought home a first place finish in the 100 Meter dash, with a time of 11.59 seconds. Later, Laufenberg would run in the 1600 meter race and take third place, with a time of 4:56.38. In the 400 Meter dash Taron Gutowski placed second with a run of 53.56.
On the girl side Faith Seliger took first place in the high jump with a height of 5-00.00, with teammate Trinity Evans taking third with a jump of 4-04.00.
The Lady Jays 4×800 relay team placed second, running a time of 11:15.40. The 4×800 relay team consists of Elizabeth Schmidt, Claire Drew, Sadie Wakefield and Dalie Thomas. In the 1600 Meter run Schmidt ran a time of 5:49.06, good enough for second place. The 400 Meter dash saw Thomas run a time of 1:02.09 for a second place finish, while Seliger ran a time of 1:04.47, taking third place.
“It was a beautiful night in Medford,” adds Pawlicki, They have totally renovated their track. It was nice to stretch our legs on a 400 meter track to see what we really have and what we have is a great group of kids who like to compete.”