Raiders swim to a split in season’s first double-dual with GNC rivals

MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING

Medford’s second of three scheduled trips to the metered swim pool in Antigo went much better than the first Tuesday as most Raiders significantly cut times from their Dec. 8 meet and the team earned a win over the host Red Robins in the double-dual.

The Raiders’ results beat Antigo 76-65 to give them a split in the meet as Tomahawk’s results gave the Hatchets an 8551 win over the Raiders. Tomahawk’s scores gave it an 85-48 win over Antigo.

This is the first of three GNC doubleduals this month for the Raiders, though the results of these meets will not count in the official conference standings. The only meet left for Medford that will count for something in GNC scoring totals is the conference meet, which will also be held in Antigo on Feb. 3.

Medford won five events in the dual with Antigo, including a pair of relays. Mason Reimann, Hudson Briggs, Ervin Ulrich and Naut van Meurs won the 200-meter freestyle relay in 2:11.21, beating Antigo’s team by 1.62 seconds, while Logan Rouiller, Roger Mann, Silas Briggs and Hunter Briggs got the thirdplace points at 2:29.18. Ulrich, McKay Gurney, Reimann and van Meurs won the 200-meter medley relay in 2:33.97 as Antigo’s team disqualified.

Gurney led a Medford sweep of the top three spots in the 100-meter breaststroke.

He finished in 1:39.97, van Meurs was second in 1:40.45 and Hunter Briggs was 4.55 seconds faster than he was in Antigo a month earlier, taking third in 1:40.69.

Hudson Briggs was a winner in the Antigo dual in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 1:19.39 that beat his Dec. 8 time by 1.6 seconds. Hunter Briggs was next at 1:22.32 and Silas Briggs got the fifth-place point at 1:26.36, which was 5.86 seconds faster than his last 100-meter race here. In the 50-meter freestyle, van Meurs finished in 31.84 to beat Antigo’s Garrett Tomczyk by 0.56 seconds and his Dec. 8 time by 3.39 seconds. Mann was fourth for Medford in 37.6 seconds and Silas Briggs was fifth in 37.63 seconds, 1.74 seconds ahead of his December time in Antigo.

Against Antigo, Reimann was second in both the 100-meter butterfly (1:24.66) and 200-meter individual medley (3:00.82) behind Ezra Santiago, who swam the butterfly in 1:11.36 and the medley in 2:53.54. Reimann was much faster than a month ago in both, dropping 8.48 seconds in the butterfly and 4.55 seconds in the medley. Ulrich nearly won the 400-meter freestyle. He was 0.14 seconds behind the Robins’ Dawson Behm in a time of 5:35.8 that was more than 25 seconds ahead of his earlier time in the Antigo pool. Gurney was third in 6:33.99.

Rouiller was second in the 100-meter backstroke at 1:34.62, 5.45 seconds behind Tomczyk but 11.14 seconds ahead of his December time. He also took second in the 200-meter freestyle at 2:38.78, 2.44 seconds behind Behm and an amazing 24.6 seconds ahead of his December time. Hudson Briggs was fourth in 3:00.22.

Antigo beat Medford 85-69 in the Dec. 8 dual that counted in the GNC standings.

Against Tomahawk, those results by Medford produced one win. That came from Reimann, who was uncontested in the 100-meter butterfly. he was second in the 200-meter individual medley behind Hatchet standout Zach Hanse (2:27.83).

Rouiller was second in the 100-yard backstroke behind Trey Morrison (1:17.58) and third in the 200-meter freestyle, which was won by Sam Zastrow in 2:24.98. Hudson Briggs was fourth. Ulrich and Gurney were second and third in the 400-meter freestyle behind Bruce Peetz (5:31.92).

Gurney’s breaststroke time was good for third behind Hanse (1:14.71) and Zach Germano (1:22.89), while van Meurs and Hunter Briggs were fourth and fifth. Hudson Briggs was fourth, Hunter Briggs was fifth and Silas Briggs was sixth in the 100-meter freestyle, won by Zastrow in 1:03.53.

Tomahawk held a 6.32-second advantage over Medford in the 200-meter freestyle relay at 2:04.89 and a 21.52-second edge in the 200-meter medley relay at 2:12.45. Medford’s B relay team again took third in that freestyle race.

Medford will host a double-dual today, Thursday, against the two teams the Raiders beat in official GNC duals, Lakeland and Shawano. The meet gets underway at 5:30 p.m. Medford is at Menomonie on Jan. 19 to make up a Dec. 22 weather postponement.