Busy stretch capped by easy win; tough one with Hodags today

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

Five meets in 13 days is something a Medford girls swim team has rarely done. The Raiders finished that stretch last Thursday by taking a chance to focus on the little things.

Facing an Antigo team with just five swimmers, the outcome was never in doubt in a 126-36 Great Northern Conference victory.

“Since Antigo has a meter pool, we told the girls to really focus in on the small things like starts, solid turns and finishes,” head coach Morgan Wilson said. “The times, even when converted, are never 100% accurate so we wanted quality swimming over setting personal time records. We got to see some girls swim different strokes and everyone was positive and swimming well.”

The Raiders get their biggest test of the regular season tonight, Thursday, when they host perennial GNC power Rhinelander in the MASH pool at 5:30 p.m. The Hodags also started conference competition in convincing fashion last week, burying the Ladysmith Co-op 13436.

“It’ll be nice to be back to having a full week of practice before a meet after the last couple of weeks, giving us time to focus in on getting rid of some bad habits,” Wilson said. “With Rhinelander coming in this week, they already have very impressive times to start the season and we know we’ll have to put our heads down and swim our absolute best.”

Senior Breanna Kraemer won two events against the Red Robins, starting with the 200-meter freestyle. She led a Medford sweep of the top three spots with a time of 2:40.46. Adalyn Dittrich (2:42.78) and Mackenzie Petersen (2:50.4) were next. Kraemer later won the 100-meter backstroke in 1:19.24. Medford again swept the top three spots with Chelsea Gebauer (1:22.43) and Tana Rappe (1:29.48) finishing second and third.

Rappe eased to victory in the 100-meter freestyle in 1:11.29, followed by teammates Jolie Steliga and Cadance Haenel in 1:17.79 and 1:17.81. Sydney Sperl led yet another sweep in the 200-meter individual medley. She won in a strong time of 2:48.34, while Colby Bergman and Jordyn Johnson were second and third in 2:58.17 and 3:11.13.

Sperl also won the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:28.66, while Johnson was second at 1:36.32. Bergman added a long-distance win in the 400-meter freestyle with her time of 5:24.34. Dittrich was second in 5:33.72 and Kassidy Janda was fourth at 6:15.01.

Chloe Tainter was Antigo’s bright spot. She won back-to-back events around the 15-minute break, taking the 50-meter freestyle in 28.98 seconds and the 100-meter butterfly in 1:11.93. Gebauer was second in the butterfly at 1:21.52, followed by Raiders Layla Petersen (1:23.27) and Kodi Rappe (1:35.35). Kodi Rappe was the runner-up in the 50 free at 32.13 seconds, while Jackie Williams (32.49) was fourth and Janda (34.7) took fifth.

Medford’s depth obviously added points in the relays. Kraemer, Williams, Johnson and Bergman won the 200-meter freestyle race in 2:13.74, while Mackenzie Petersen, Layla Petersen, Steliga and Dittrich were 1.62 seconds behind, almost 12 seconds ahead of Antigo’s thirdplace team.

Sperl, Gebauer, Layla Petersen and Johnson won the 200-meter medley relay in 2:20.91, beating Antigo’s team by 14.17 seconds. The team of Haenel, Tana Rappe, Kodi Rappe and Steliga was third in 2:43.63 and Chloe Pipkorn, Paige Wilkins, Williams and Mackenzie Petersen were fourth in 2:52.32.

Medford was unopposed in the 400-meter freestyle relay. Layla Petersen, Bergman, Gebauer and Sperl won in 4:55.97. The combination of Kodi Rappe, Dittrich, Steliga and Tana Rappe was second in 5:14.45 and Mackenzie Petersen, Janda, Haenel and Kraemer took third in 5:23.14.

Jayda Fryklund won the JV 50-meter freestyle in 34.46 seconds, followed by Pipkorn (38.07) and Wilkins (39.5). Fryklund also won the 100-meter freestyle in 1:22.57, followed by Pipkorn (1:30.55) and Wilkins (1:31.1).

After today’s meet with the Hodags, Medford hosts the Tomahawk Hatchets on Sept. 14 while getting into its normal one meet a week routine.