Raiders get 5 top-six efforts at GNC swim

GNC BOYS SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS

Swimming in Antigo’s 25-meter pool for the third and final time this winter, the Medford Raiders continued to lower times and eked a one-point margin over Shawano to claim fourth place in Friday’s Great Northern Conference championships.

The Raiders compiled 135 points during the meet, just ahead of Shawano’s 134 and comfortably ahead of Lakeland’s 111. Had it not been for four unfortunate disqualifications, the Raiders might have pushed the host Red Robins for third. Antigo scored 147 points to finish 30 behind runner-up Tomahawk.

To no one’s surprise, the meet belonged to the Rhinelander Hodags, who scored 422 points by winning all but one event. The Hodags actually had the top two finishers in eight of 11 races and the top three finishers in three of them.

“It was another night with personal best times set and amazingly competitive races,” Medford head coach Terry Werner said. “We also have areas to improve on before the sectional meet next Saturday at Ashwaubenon. State is within reach for some of these boys. I could not be more proud of them.”

Sophomore Mason Reimann was Medford’s top individual finisher, placing fourth in the 200-meter individual medley. He just missed gaining All-GNC honorable mention with his time of 2:52.84. He was 1.01 seconds behind third-place finisher Troy Rice of Lakeland. Reimann was about eight seconds faster than he was in Medford’s last visit to Antigo on Jan. 10. Rhinelander’s Daniel Gillingham won the race in 2:20.48.

Reimann added a sixth-place time of 1:23.35 in the 100-meter butterfly, dropping 1.11 seconds from his last race in Antigo. Gillingham also took this event in 1:01.28.

Medford also had a fourth-place relay team in Friday’s meet. The 400-meter freestyle team of Hudson Briggs, Logan Rouiller, Ervin Ulrich and Dylan Kraemer did that, finishing in 4:53.15. They were 14.77 seconds behind third-place Tomahawk. Rhinelander had the top two teams in 3:43.84 and 4:04.49. Silas Briggs, Roger Mann, Jimmy Murillo Aguirre and Hunter Briggs placed seventh in 5:30.19.

Rouiller took a strong sixth in the 400-meter freestyle race with his time of 5:29.46. That was just his second long distance race of the year and first in the Antigo pool. Ulrich placed eighth in 5:40.47. This is one of the events Rhinelander swept the top three spots, led by a time of 4:46.7 by Shawn Denis. Rouiller wasn’t done. He took eighth in the 100-meter backstroke at 1:27.64, just ahead of Murillo Aguirre’s time of 1:28.23. Mann placed 14th in 1:45.47. Rouiller cut about seven seconds off his time in Antigo from a month earlier, and Murillo Aguirre was 11.46 seconds ahead of Dec. 8 time in the Antigo pool. Rhinelander’s Carter Gaber led his team’s sweep of the top three spots in the race with his time of 1:00.88.

Kraemer, a senior, earned a pair of individual seventh-place finishes. His first came in the 200-meter freestyle, where he finished in 2:41.48, which was more than 14 seconds ahead of his Dec. 8 time in Antigo. Hudson Briggs was ninth in 2:47.19, 13.3 seconds faster than he was on Jan. 10. Marcus O’Malley won the race for Rhinelander in 2:12.95.

Kraemer’s other seventh was in the 100-meter freestyle in a time of 1:13.53. Hudson Briggs placed 10th in 1:16.77, improving by 2.62 seconds over his Jan. 10 visit. Silas Briggs took 13th in 1:21.49, improving by 4.87 seconds from Jan. 10. Charlie Heck won for Rhinelander in 55.81 seconds.

Reimann, Hudson Briggs, Naut van Meurs and Ulrich teamed up for a sixthplace podium finish in the 200-meter freestyle relay with their time of 2:01.23, which was just 1.03 seconds behind fifthplace Shawano. Rhinelander won in 1:45.19. Murillo Aguirre, van Meurs, Reimann and Kraemer were seventh in the 200-meter medley relay at 2:32.95. Rhinelander’s winning time was 1:52.86.

In the 50-meter freestyle, van Meurs placed 10th in 29.86 seconds, a time that was 1.98 seconds faster than it was on Jan. 10. Mann placed 16th in 34.22 seconds, about 4.3 seconds faster than he was on Jan. 10. Gaber was the champion in 24.75 seconds.

Tomahawk’s Zach Hanse was the only champion not from Rhinelander. He won the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:08.96.

Saturday’s Ashwaubenon sectional starts at 1 p.m. and features all six of the GNC teams, the host Jaguars as well as Menomonie, Green Bay Notre Dame, Rice Lake and Wausau East. All event winners will advance to the Feb. 17 state meet at Waukesha South, along with any swimmer who are among the state’s top 12 non-winning times in each race.