Raiders have some fun, post good times in sprint and relay meets

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

For the second straight year, the Medford Raiders swam to a second-place finish Tuesday in the Chase the Tiger Sprint Invitational in Marshfield.

The Raiders upped their point total by 13 points over last year, but it still wasn’t quite enough to knock off Merrill, who defended their 2021 title in this meet by totaling 239 points. Marshfield was third with 164 points, followed by Tomahawk (134), the Black River Falls Co-op (119) and Colby-Abbotsford (117).

The meet consisted entirely of sprint events where no swimmer went longer than 100 yards.

“We had another nice outing taking second out of six teams,” Medford head coach Morgan Wilson said. “We switched around quite a few girls to see them in different events and were pleased with how they did. It’s great to see the girls be able to swim different events well and with confidence.”

Individually, Medford’s top event of the meet was the 100-yard individual medley, where senior Aiden Denzer placed second in 1:08.64, just ahead of teammate Sydney Sperl (1:09.31). Raider Chelsea Gebauer was fifth at 1:13.2. Merrill’s Amber Winter was the winner in 1:06.06.

“Our three IM swimmers performed really well with all of them finishing in the top five,” Wilson said.

Sophomore Tana Rappe was a solid third in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:04.05, while Kirsten Weix (1:09.13) and Kassidy Koncel (1:10.07) were seventh and eighth in a race won by Tomahawk’s Joanna Phillips in 59.33 seconds. Rappe was 0.8 seconds behind runner-up Bailee Sommer of Merrill. Rappe added a sixth-place time of 33.63 seconds in the 50-yard butterfly, while Layla Petersen was ninth for Medford in 34.09 seconds and Erica Brandner was 10th in 34.6 seconds.

Gebauer was third in the 50-yard breaststroke at 35.86 seconds, trailing Winter (33.93) and Colby-Abbotsford’s Madisyn Schraufnagel (34.75). Raider Jordyn Johnson came in seventh at 38.48 seconds, while Colby Bergman was 10th in 41.43 seconds. Breanna Kraemer was fourth out of 16 entrants in the 50-yard backstroke at 33.51 seconds, while Adalyn Dittrich was eighth at 37.73 seconds and Cadance Haenel was 12th in 40.97 seconds. Phillips won in 31.35 seconds.

Freshman Jolie Steliga was Medford’s top finisher in the 50-yard freestyle, taking sixth in 31.81 seconds. Teammates Mackenzie Petersen (31.85) and Dittrich (31.88) were next in line.

Layla Petersen won the JV 50-yard backstroke in 39.22 seconds, while Steliga tied with Merrill’s Brenna Jirovec for second at 39.99 seconds. Paige Wilkins was fourth in the JV 50-yard freestyle at 50.54 seconds.

Medford earned second-place points in two of the meet’s relay races.

The first came in the 100-yard freestyle where Bergman, Koncel, Kraemer and Johnson combined in their 25-yard splits to finish in 56.85 seconds. Marshfield’s team was impressive, winning in 51.51 seconds. Bergman, Kraemer, Weix and Rappe finished the 8x50-yard freestyle in 3:57.84, again finishing behind Marshfield (3:42.66).

Sperl, Rappe, Brandner and Denzer placed fourth in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 1:55.8, while Weix, Haenel, Mackenzie Petersen and Koncel were seventh at 2:08.24. Mackenzie Petersen, Weix, Layla Petersen and Dittrich took fourth in the 100-yard medley relay, while the team of Brandner, Haenel, Koncel and Steliga was seventh at 1:13.57.

Denzer, Gebauer, Sperl and Johnson started the meet by taking fifth in the 200-yard medley relay with their time of 2:06.65. Kraemer, Bergman, Brandner and Mackenzie Petersen took eighth in 2:20.91 and the team of Dittrich, Layla Petersen, Haenel and Steliga were exactly nine seconds behind in ninth place.

“We haven’t had any disqualifications in the first two meets which is always good, especially with a lot of relays,” Wilson said. “We’re hoping to keep those exchanges solid throughout the rest of the season.”

After two non-traditional meets to start the season, the Raiders will dive into normal dual meets next week. They will get a tough matchup at Merrill on Tuesday before hosting Antigo Sept. 1 in the Great Northern Conference opener. Both dual meets start at 5:30 p.m.

Fifth at Menomonie

Medford opened the 2022 season Saturday with a fifth-place finish at the eight-team Menomonie Relays, which were won by first-time entrant and GNC power Rhinelander.

The 200-yard breaststroke team of Weix, Johnson, Denzer and Gebauer led the Raiders with a second-place finish. The team’s time of 2:30.88 put it just 0.61 seconds behind the winning team from La Crosse Central-Logan.

Three third-place and three fourthplace finishes helped the Raiders score 362 points, enough to beat Eau Claire North (338), Menomonie (264) and the Black River Falls Co-op (210). Rhinelander scored 560 points to pull away from La Crosse Central-Logan (468), Marshfield (396) and Wisconsin Rapids (380).

“We had a nice start to the season in our first meet with some solid times,” Wilson said. “We finished in the top four in seven out of the 10 swimming events. Our breaststroke relay swam a great, tight race and edged out Rhinelander (2:31.07) and Marshfield (2:31.71) for a second-place finish.”

The first of Medford’s third-place finishes came in the first event, the 200-yard medley relay. A touch pad malfunction first put Medford in 10th place, but the team of Denzer, Gebauer, Sperl and Johnson actually finished third in 2:04.76 behind Marshfield (1:53.57) and Rhinelander (2:02.47). Kraemer, Weix, Layla Petersen and Mackenzie Petersen were ninth in 2:19.41.

In the next event, the 800-yard freestyle relay, Bergman, Brandner, Koncel and Rappe pushed their way to a third-place time of 9:46.58, which beat Marshfield by 2.71 seconds. Rhinelander (8:27.06) and the La Crosse team (8:45.58) took the top two spots. Gebauer, Layla Petersen and Denzer took third in the 300-yard individual medley relay at 3:42.71. They trailed Marshfield (3:24.23) and the La Crosse team (3:31.83) but beat the fourth-place team from Black River Falls by 5.86 seconds.

Brandner, Layla Petersen, Bergman and Sperl got fourth in the 200-yard butterfly relay in 2:17.11. Marshfield won in 2:00.85. Rappe, Dittrich, Bergman and Kraemer were fourth in the 200-yard backstroke relay at 2:14.45, while Wilkins, Haenel, Mackenzie Petersen and Koncel were 11th in 2:55.67. Rhinelander won in 1:57.81. Sperl, Johnson, Gebauer and Denzer finished the meet by taking fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay at 4:13.28, while the combination of Brandner, Koncel, Kraemer and Bergman was sixth in 4:28.45. Rhinelander won in 3:46.15. Johnson, Weix, Koncel and Rappe were fifth in the 500-yard crescendo relay in a time of 5:51.63, while Mackenzie Petersen, Brandner, Haenel and Dittrich were eighth in 6:15.48. Sperl, Weix, Kraemer and Rappe were sixth in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 1:57.79, while Haenel, Wilkins, Mackenzie Petersen and Dittrich were 13th in 2:25.23.

“We were really pleased with the effort the girls put in and feel we have a good starting point to work up from,” Wilson said. “We still have some things to tweak here and there in terms of relay exchanges and turns. But overall, we are happy with how the girls raced.”