Raiders ease to another win, aim to secure second Friday at GNC

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

The final dual meet of the regular season went as expected Thursday for Medford’s girls swim team, who cruised to a 93-56 win over Mosinee on Senior Night at the MASH pool to conclude a second straight 6-1 run through the Great Northern Conference.

That record means Medford will head into Friday’s GNC Championships in Tomahawk sitting in second place, two points ahead of the Ladysmith Coop. That’s where they hope to stay with Rhinelander being the heavy favorites to seal their fourth straight conference title.

This is the third year where the conference meet is two weeks ahead of the WIAA Division 2 sectional rather than one week before, which is where the Raiders prefer it as they try to time the girls tapering process to where they’ll be at their strongest at the sectional, which is set for Nov. 5 in Merrill.

“It falls better than it has in the past, having it moved up,” Medford head coach Morgan Wilson said after Thursday’s win. “Next week is still going to be a tougher week. I still think we can look forward to some good times and some good competition. Rhinelander is going to bring it as they always do, but it will be nice to see the rest of the teams again. Maybe in some of those closer races we had with some of the Tomahawk girls and Ladysmith we can come out on the other side of that.”

The two seniors had strong performances in their last meets in the MASH pool.

Aiden Denzer won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:27.57, just 0.21 seconds shy of her season-best time in the event. It was a Medford-only race with Layla Petersen taking second in 2:46.73 and Cadance Haenel finishing third in 3:08.72.

Denzer also had the fastest time in the 100-yard backstroke, which Medford swam as an exhibition race having already built up plenty of points to win the meet. Denzer’s time was 1:09.75, again less than a second off her season-best. Teammates Breanna Kraemer (1:12.36) and Adalyn Dittrich (1:18.26) also finished well ahead of Mosinee’s two swimmers.

Kirsten Weix set a season-best time of 6:45.4 while taking third in the 500-yard freestyle and she would’ve been second in the 100-yard breaststroke at a seasonbest 1:32.21 behind a season-best time of 1:20.4 from teammate Jordyn Johnson.

“Even though we only had two seniors, they are two really good ones to have,” Wilson said. “Both are always trying to keep a positive attitude and pushing the girls at practice. They’ve been really good role models for them. Two of our girls spoke about them at the break and they kind of summed it up. We’re really going to miss them next year. We wish the best for them. They are great to have.”

Junior Colby Bergman led Medford’s sweep of the top three spots in the 500yard freestyle in a season best 5:58.26, while Dittrich dropped a ton of time for her previous 500 this fall to take second in 6:15.45.

“Colby keeps saying she’s still not tired,” Wilson said. “I’m glad she’s still continuing to improve. We’ll see what we can do in the next couple weeks with the taper as we go into the sectional meet.”

Bergman added a second-place time of 2:17.66 in the 200-yard freestyle, 5.09 seconds behind Mosinee’s Haylie Kluz. Tana Rappe was third for Medford in 2:18.23 and Mackenzie Petersen got the fourth-place points at 2:25.21.

Johnson got an additional win in the 50-yard freestyle, sprinting to a time of 28.33 seconds that beat teammate Jolie Steliga by 1.22 seconds. Kassidy Koncel was fourth for Medford in 31.61 seconds.

Sophomore Sydney Sperl, who has been placed in just about every event in recent weeks, won the 100-yard freestyle in this meet with a time of 1:00.24, leading a Medford sweep of the top three spots. Erica Brandner was second in 1:04.26 and Rappe took third in 1:04.55, a half-second ahead of Mosinee’s Morgan Hoernke.

“She’s our Swiss army knife,” Wilson said of Sperl. “She can go in anything and we know she’s going to perform well and do well, which is really nice to have. It’s a good gift to have someone like that where you can throw her in anywhere. I think we have a couple girls like that, but she definitely sticks out as one of them.”

Chelsea Gebauer’s time of 1:15.13 was good for second in the 100-yard butterfly, 2.48 seconds behind Kluz. Layla Petersen was right behind her at 1:15.5 and Kraemer placed fourth in 1:17.17.

“Layla dropped about five seconds, which is tough to do in anything, especially in the fly during the hardest part of the season,” Wilson said. “It’s super awesome to see. We’re excited to see what she’s going to do down the line.”

Mackenzie Petersen swam the JV 100yard freestyle in 1:09.35 to finish ahead of Haenel (1:12.09). Paige Wilkins was third in the JV 50-yard freestyle at a seasonbest 40.5 seconds and she swam the 100yard breaststroke in 1:49.96.

Medford outscored Mosinee 12-2 in both the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relays.

Denzer, Gebauer, Sperl and Johnson won the medley relay in 2:03.57, a seasonbest time for Medford, while Bergman, Layla Petersen, Brandner and Weix were next at 2:18.05, 5.97 seconds ahead of Mosinee’s top team. Dittrich, Wilkins, Koncel and Steliga were fourth at 2:29.07. Sperl, Rappe, Johnson and Gebauer won the shorter freestyle relay in 1:53.96, while Brandner, Kraemer, Layla Petersen and Steliga were second at 2:00.43, edging Mosinee’s top team by 0.69 seconds. Wilkins, Haenel, Koncel and Mackenzie Petersen were fourth in 2:17.72.

Mosinee was credited with the win in the 400-yard freestyle relay at 4:32.23, but Medford’s team of Sperl, Bergman, Rappe and Denzer had the fastest time at 4:14.5 while Brandner, Koncel, Kraemer and Weix were next at 4:31.62. Dittrich, Haenel, Mackenzie Petersen and Steliga finished in 4:46.49.

“Despite being in the tough part of the season we had some good times and some good things to work on and improve upon for conference next week and sectionals a couple weeks after that,” Wilson said.

Friday’s meet in Tomahawk starts at 5 p.m. First-team, second-team and honorable mention All-GNC awards will go to the top three finishers in each race.

Aiden Denzer

Kirsten Weix

Medford’s Breanna Kraemer glides through lane two in the 100-yard backstroke, an event she was second in during Thursday’s meet with Mosinee at 1:12.36.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS