Raiders look for big time drops as sectional is already here

GNC BOYS SWIMMING

The 200-yard medley relay team earned a fifth-place finish and Adam Swedlund’s sixth-place finish topped Medford’s individual placements at Fri- day’s Great Northern Conference boys swim meet, hosted by Shawano.

Swedlund’s time in the 100-yard breaststroke was a season-best at 1:14.81, 0.57 seconds faster than he was eight days earlier in a dual meet with Lakeland.

That time put the freshman in sixth place out of 10 swimmers, 1.47 seconds behind fifth-place finisher Dave Meier of Lakeland. Sopho- more Zach Hanse of Tomahawk set a GNC record with his winning time of 1:03.33. That was the only conference re- cord set in Friday’s meet. and Tahtankka Damm in the medley relay was 2:02.79, just a shade off their season-best of 2:02.31 set Jan. 5 in the Shawano pool. They beat Shawano’s B team (2:08.51) and Lakeland’s A team (2:18.16) in Friday’s race, which was won by Rhinelander (1:48.04).

The Hodags, as expected, dominated Friday’s meet by scoring 414 points and clinched their third straight GNC team title. Lakeland finished a distant second with 239 points, Shawano was third with 219, Tomahawk took fourth with 199 points and Medford placed fifth with 103.

Individually, Miller earned a seventhplace finish for Medford in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:13.12 and Kraemer was eighth at a season-best 1:13.97. Rhinelander’s Daniel Gillingham won the league title in a time of 56.55 seconds. Kraemer added a seventh-place time of 1:15.58 in the 100-yard backstroke, which was won by Lakeland’s Avery Tucker in 56.97 seconds.

Isaac Dittrich was seventh in the 500-yard freestyle and eighth in the 200yard freestyle Friday. His 500 time was 6:32.35, which placed him ahead of Shawano’s Adan Reedy (6:53.97) and Tomahawk’s Taje Casey (6:57.44). Lakeland’s Max Nowak won in 5:21. Dittrich swam the 200 in 2:25.87, while Swedlund placed 10th at a season-best 2:30.44, 8.59 seconds faster than he was Jan. 7 against Rhinelander. Gillingham won Friday’s race in 1:52.31.

Tahtankka Damm took ninth and 10th in the freestyle sprints. His ninthplace finish came in the 50-yard race in 26.4 seconds. His time in the 100-yard race was 1:00.23, while teammate Nathan Sislo was 12th at 1:04.9. Both swimmers were less than a second shy of seasonbests.

Lakeland’s Liam Hogan won the 50yard freestyle in 22.16 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle in 48.94 seconds.

Sislo added a ninth-place time of 1:22.49 in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Damm, Dittrich, Kraemer and Miller took sixth in the meet’s final race with its time of 4:25.04, beating Tomahawk’s B team by 3.36 seconds. Swedlund, Sislo, Dittrich and Miller were eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 1:58.9. Lakeland (3:26.69) edged Rhinelander (3:26.93) in the 400-yard race, while Rhinelander won the 200-yard race in 1:32.26, 2.16 seconds ahead of Lakeland.

The Raiders hope their tapering process pays off in big time drops Saturday when they compete in the WIAA Division 2 Rhinelander sectional, which starts at 1 p.m. in the Heck Community Pool. All event champions will qualify for the Feb. 5 state meet at Waukesha South High School as will any times that fall among the top 12 non-winning times statewide in each event.

Medford, Rhinelander, Lakeland, Menomonie, Rice Lake, Tomahawk and Wausau East are scheduled to compete in Saturday’s sectional meet, which is being held two weeks earlier than normal.