Times drop significantly as Raiders wrap up round one of GNC duals
![Times drop significantly as Raiders wrap up round one of GNC duals Times drop significantly as Raiders wrap up round one of GNC duals](https://www.centralwinews.com/centralwinews/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/2befaa477294a8908c579a6fc683907b.jpg)
![Times drop significantly as Raiders wrap up round one of GNC duals Times drop significantly as Raiders wrap up round one of GNC duals](https://www.centralwinews.com/centralwinews/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/12/2befaa477294a8908c579a6fc683907b.jpg)
Winning Thursday’s Great Northern Conference dual meet wasn’t realistic for the Medford swimmers, but the competition from Tomahawk helped pull the Raiders to several season-best times in a 103-49 loss at MASH pool.
The Raiders completed the first round of GNC duals at 0-4-1 but Thursday’s results also showed they are an improving squad heading into round two of the duals, which starts Jan. 2 with a home meet against Shawano, who won a fairly close 85.5-69.5 meet back on opening night, Dec. 3.
Freshman Jacob Mitchell earned the team’s highest individual placement, taking second in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:20.72 behind Hatchet Adam Hall (1:15.36). Mitchell dropped just over three seconds from his previous best time from a week earlier. He wasn’t the only one dropping time as Nathan Sislo cut 1.52 seconds off his previous best while taking fourth at 1:33.99 and Christian Di Benedetto knocked 1.62 seconds off his previous best while taking the fifth-place point at 1:38.23.
Earlier in the meet, Mitchell joined senior Jack Griesbach to turn in solid performances in the 200-yard individual medley. Griesbach was third in 2:47.73, dropping 2.27 seconds from his previous season-best time and Mitchell was fourth at 3:03.47. Tomahawk’s Keaton Jed won in 2:21.29.
All three Raiders entered in the 100yard freestyle dropped their times. Di Benedetto was fourth in 1:12.72, knocking off nearly two seconds. Sislo was fifth in 1:15.73, cutting over 3.5 seconds, and Dylan Kraemer was sixth at 1:22.32.
In the closest finish of the night, senior Matt Buchan was just touched out in the race for second in the 200-yard freestyle by Hatchet Ethan Liebnitz by 0.17 seconds, but he posted his best time of the winter at 2:20.6. Isaac Dittrich added a fourth-place time of 2:33.02. Hatchet Zach Hanse won in 2:11.34.
Buchan added a third-place time of 6:38.04 in the 500-yard freestyle, while Dittrich put a little dent in his time as he came in fourth at 6:43.73. Jed won in 5:41.01.
Tahtankka Damm earned a pair of thirds for Medford. New to the 100-yard butterfly this year, he took a big drop Thursday while posting a time of 1:20.79, just ahead of Griesbach’s time of 1:22.61, which was a season-best by 4.6 seconds. Damm’s other third-place finish came in the 50-yard freestyle at 28.82 seconds. Blaze Kesan’s fourth-place time was a season-best 30.94 seconds as was Tayler Mueller’s fifth-place time of 31.19 seconds.
Travis Phillips won the butterfly (57.61) and 50-yard race (22.65) for the Hatchets.
Kesan, who just started competing in the event two nights earlier at Antigo, got the fourth-place points in the 100yard backstroke with his time of 1:34.62. Kraemer improved while taking fifth in 1:39.19 and Mueller swam the backstroke for the first time and got sixth in 1:44.01. Brady Tjugum of Tomahawk was the winner in 1:09.96.
A new 400-yard freestyle relay combination of Buchan, Griesbach, Dittrich and Damm was second in 4:34.91 behind Tomahawk’s winning time of 4:07.09. Kesan, Kraemer, Mueller and Sislo got two third-place points by finishing in 5:33.42.
Kraemer, Di Benedetto, Mitchell and Sislo started the meet by placing second in the 200-yard medley relay in 2:29.09. Tomahawk’s winning time was 2:15.57.
The Hatchets finished the first round of duals at 4-1, with their only loss coming to league-leading Rhinelander.
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