No contest in Lakeland win; Raiders give Antigo a good run

MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING

Facing just two opposing swimmers from Lakeland Tuesday, the Medford swimmers cruised to their second home and Great Northern Conference win of the season, 75-18.

The Raiders won by the wide margin despite swimming the last three events in exhibition fashion, which allowed Lakeland to pick up 10 free points in the 100-yard backstroke.

The Raiders improved 2-2 in GNC competition, heading into a most challenging dual meet at league power Rhinelander tonight, Thursday, weather permitting.

Dylan Kraemer and Ervin Ulrich dropped their times considerably in the 500-yard freestyle, taking first and second in 6:47.31 and 6:56.56, respectively. McKay Gurney swam it for the first time and took third in 7:55.4. Kraemer also won the 200-yard freestyle in a season- best 2:32.35, while teammates Hudson Briggs (2:37.17) and Logan Rouiller (2:39.51) were second and third. Rouiller dropped his time by about 12 seconds.

Hudson Briggs won the 100-yard freestyle in 1:09.5, Hunter Briggs was second in 1:20.8 and Roger Mann took third in 1:21.05. Mason Reimann was uncontested in winning the 200-yard individual medley in 2:40.95 and 100-yard butterfly in a season-best 1:16.32.

Reimann, Hudson Briggs, Naut van Meurs and Ulrich won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:58.03, the fastest time of the season by a Medford team. They beat a combined exhibition team of Hunter Briggs and Gurney as well as Lakeland’s Kasper Erickson and Kirill Malyshko that finished in 2:07.86.

Medford’s team of Jimmy Murillo Aguirre, Gurney, Reimann and Kraemer won the 200-yard medley relay in 2:23.55, while Medford’s second team disqualified. The 400-yard freestyle team of Hudson Briggs, van Meurs, Murillo Aguirre and Ulrich was the first finisher in 4:51.99, just ahead of the mixed team of Rouiller, Silas Briggs and the two TBirds (4:57.42).

In the 50-yard freestyle, Malyshko got Lakeland on the board with a win in 26.44 seconds, just ahead of van Meurs (29.4), Medford’s Dutch foreign exchange student competing in just his second meet with the Raiders. Murillo Aguirre was third in 33.68 seconds and Silas Briggs was fifth at 35.47 seconds.

Murillo Aguirre was the first finisher in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:31.55, his best time so far. Mann swam the event for the first time and took second in 1:51.12.

Malyshko won the breaststroke in 1:21.14, while Erickson was credited with second in 1:38.22. Gurney led a trio of Raiders with a time of 1:33.12. Hunter Briggs set a new best time of 1:36.15 and Silas Briggs came in at 1:42.79 in his first high school breaststroke.

The Raiders will close out the preholiday portion of their schedule Dec. 22 with a 6:30 p.m. non-conference meet at Menomonie.

Antigo 85, Medford 69

On Thursday, Medford won three events but fell just short of a team win, falling 85-69 to the host Antigo Red Robins in the 25-meter pool at the McKenna Aquatic Center.

The longer distances didn’t hurt Hunter Briggs and Reimann in their individual wins. Briggs took the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:45.24, edging Red Robin Brion Koszarek by 2.1 seconds. He nearly beat his time of 1:44.13 from a week earlier in a 100-yard race in Medford. Reimann easily took the 200-meter individual medley in 3:05.37, finishing well ahead of Koszarek (3:40.64).

The third win came in the shorter 400-meter freestyle, where Ulrich and Kraemer took the top two spots for Medford in a fight to the finish. Ulrich’s first win of the year came in a time of 6:01.16, just 0.47 seconds ahead of Kraemer as Medford got 10 points in that race.

Murillo Aguirre took second in the 100-meter backstroke in 1:39.69, and Rouiller took third in 1:45.76, giving the Raiders six team points. Antigo’s Garrett Tomzcyk won in 1:33.75.

Reimann added a second-place time of 1:32.92 in the 100-meter butterfly, which was won by Antigo’s Ezra Santiago in 1:10.28. Hudson Briggs was second for the Raiders in the 100-meter freestyle at 1:20.99. Dawson Behm won for Antigo in 1:15.42, but a fourth-place time of 1:32.22 from Silas Briggs and a fifth-place time of 1:32.91 from Mann gave Medford seven points in the event.

Kraemer added a second-place time of 2:55.61 in the 200-meter freestyle, while Rouiller was fifth in 3:02.84. Behm won in 2:46.91. Naut van Meurs debuted for Medford with a third-place time of 35.23 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle, good for third place. Murillo Aguirre was fourth in 36.72 seconds and Silas Briggs was fifth in 39.37 seconds. Antigo’s Karl Busse won in 28.19 seconds, just ahead of Santiago (28.91).

Reimann, Hudson Briggs, Rouiller and Ulrich gave Antigo a good race in the 200-meter freestyle. The team came up 0.97 seconds short in a time of 2:15.1. Hunter Briggs, Mann, Silas Briggs and van Meurs took third in 2:39.56. Kraemer, Hudson Briggs, Murillo Aguirre and Ulrich took second in the 400-meter freeplay style at 5:33.92, while Mann, van Meurs, Silas Briggs and Hunter Briggs were third in 6:23.11. Antigo won in 5:15.35.

Murillo Aguirre, Hunter Briggs, Reimann and Kraemer swam the 200-meter medley relay in 2:43.94, while Ulrich, van Meurs, Rouiller and Hudson Briggs took third in 3:00.91. Antigo’s team won comfortably in 2:24.61.