Raiders glide to easy Senior Night win; one GNC dual left

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

Medford’s five-member senior class took center stage Thursday in the Raiders’ 92-42 swim win over Colby-Abbotsford at the MASH pool.

Lacey Brandner, Shaniah Brandt, Lydia Pernsteiner, Kami Razink and Maddie Williams swam in the final home meet of their prep careers as the Raiders cruised past another overmatched Great Northern Conference opponent that simply wasn’t going to have the depth to compete with them on the scoreboard.

Brandner and Razink were each double winners in freestyle events as Medford improved to 5-1 in GNC duals with the last dual set for today, Thursday, at Lakeland.

“Senior Night is always hard,” head coach Betsy Meinel said. “You’re with them pretty much every day for four months for four years, then all of a sudden they’re gone. It is how it is. We’re used to it, but this group is pretty special to us. They definitely have put in the work.”

Razink sprinted to victory in the 50yard freestyle with a season-best time of 27.01 seconds, that beat Colby-Abbotsford’s Chloe Cihlar by 0.34 seconds. Williams, swimming the 50 for the first time this fall, was third in 30.68 seconds and Mackenzie Petersen was sixth for the Raiders in 32.62 seconds.

A couple of events later, Razink won the 100-yard freestyle in 59.58 seconds, beating Cihlar by 2.75 seconds. Jordyn Johnson took third for the Raiders in a season-best 1:05.13 and Tana Rappe was fourth in 1:07.75.

Brandner easily won the longer freestyles. In the 200, she finished in 2:15.42, nearly 20 seconds ahead of Hornet Zanza Haemer. Raiders Kassidy Koncel and Cadance Haenel were third and fourth in 2:36.4 and 2:38.5. Koncel cut 2.8 seconds off her time from the previous meet.

In the 500-yard race, Brandner shaved a few tenths off her time and won in 6:05.72, while Pernsteiner knocked off eight seconds to place second in 6:41.71 and junior Kirsten Weix was third in 6:46.95 in her first 500 of the fall.

“I kinda used this meet to put people in events I needed times for, thinking of conference and thinking of sectionals where we needed to have times going in,” Meinel said. “So that was our idea. We wanted to make sure our seniors were in four events. They got to pick their individual events. Lacey chose to swim the 500, I was a little nervous about anybody pushing her, but she still cut time again.”

Junior Aiden Denzer won the 200yard individual medley in 2:30.01, while teammates Colby Bergman (2:42.83) and Jackie Williams (2:45.9) were second and third. Bergman added to her best meet of the fall with a win in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:12.54, though Medford swam that race as well as the 100-yard breaststroke and 400-yard freestyle relay as exhibition events. “Colby is doing really, really well in practice,” Meinel said. I knew she might not be as fast today. But I think her taper is going to go really well.”

Pernsteiner lowered her backstroke time to 1:23.03 and Brandt set a seasonbest time of 1:30.67.

Sydney Sperl won the 100-yard butterfl y in 1:12.83, followed by Erica Brandner in 1:17.25 and Breanna Kraemer in 1:21.58. Chelsea Gebauer had the fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:17.64, Jackie Williams had the second- fastest at 1:29.38 and Madisyn Pilgrim came in at 1:49.21.

Denzer, Gebauer, Sperl and Razink set a season-best time of 2:03.51 in the 200yard medley relay to start the meet, while Rappe, Jackie Williams, Erica Brandner and Johnson were second at 2:16.43 and Maddie Williams, Weix, Brandt and Pernsteiner took fourth in 2:35.38.

Johnson, Gebauer, Rappe and Lacey Brandner won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:56.1, beating Colby-Abbotsford’s top team by 3.74 seconds. Maddie Williams, Kraemer, Weix and Erica Brandner got the third-place points in 2:00.65, while Brandt, Pilgrim, Koncel and Haenel were fourth in 2:17.35.

It was all Medford teams in the exhibition 400-yard freestyle relay. Lacey Brandner, Denzer, Sperl and Razink finished in 4:15.27, followed by Kraemer, Pernsteiner, Maddie Williams and Bergman (4:31.57) and Koncel, Brandt, Pilgrim and Haenel (5:11.88).

Petersen won the JV 100-yard free- style in 1:11.8, followed by Koncel (1:12.6) and Haenel (1:14.11).

Meinel said the times overall were better than expected considering the Raiders are ramping up their yards in practice during the first half of the month.

“They’re tired,” she said. “They’re getting up to about 3 to 3.5 miles a day. They’re not coming in the mornings now, but they’re putting in the yards. Next week will be a little bit worse. Then we’ll start easing up when we go into conference (Oct. 22).

“We didn’t gain (in times) as much. We’ll take that,” Meinel added. “I thought there were going to be more gains. Next week, we’ll probably see that, but that’s OK.”

Senior Shaniah Brandt gets one more stroke in before making a turn in the 100-yard backstroke during Thursday’s win over Colby-Abbotsford.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Senior Lacey Brandner takes a breath midway through her winning effort in Thursday’s 200-yard freestyle race.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Kami Razink checks the monitor for her time after winning the 100-yard freestyle Thursday.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS