Swimmers take big step toward 2nd place with win over Tridents

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

First a win over Colby-Abbotsford on Sept. 21 and then a 106-64 win over the Ladysmith Co-op Thursday at the MASH pool have set up Medford’s girls swimmers well for another second-place finish in the Great Northern Conference.

Usually a fairly tight matchup, Thursday’s meet didn’t quite turn out that way as the Raiders won 10 of 11 races and had two of the top three finishers in every event except the 100-yard freestyle.

“We figured it would be sorta close,” Medford head coach Morgan Wilson said. “They have almost the same amount of girls that we have and we actually had a couple of girls out tonight, so we couldn’t rely on our depth as much. We really just needed to rely on swimming well and doing things correctly and we saw a lot of nice swims.

“We’re starting to get into the heavy part of our season and really ramping it up,” Wilson added. “I know a lot of girls are sore and tired but it was nice to see they kinda pushed through that and persevered. We had some personal bests, which is always nice to see at this part of the season and some really nice races. It’s always nice to face a team where there’s good competition to push the girls. It was a good night.”

The depth was still evident in the relays, where Medford outscored the Tridents 10-4 in each race with first- and third-place finishes.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Chelsea Gebauer, Kodi Rappe, Jordyn Johnson and Colby Bergman won in 1:54.86, beating Ladysmith’s top team by 1.79 seconds. Tana Rappe, Jayda Fryklund, Cadance Haenel and Ady Dittrich got the two third-place points in 1:58.74, while the team of Paige Wilkins, Chloe Pipkorn, Kassidy Janda and Lindsey Klapatauskas was fifth in 2:13.77.

Bergman, Dittrich and Janda swam the lengthy 500-yard freestyle right before the relay.

“We’re still trying to play around with our relays and trying to find the best mix for the end of the season,” Wilson said. “It’s nice to be able to get other girls in even if it’s not on the A team, if it’s the B or C, just to see. Ady, for example, swam a really nice time in her portion of the 200 free relay and she had just gotten done with the 500. When you see things like that, you know she has some good endurance and she’s pushing through. That’s really tough to do and all three girls that swam in the 500 did it and still had some nice times and a good kick at the end.”

Sydney Sperl, Gebauer, Layla Petersen and Kodi Rappe opened the meet with a winning time of 2:03.74 in the 200-yard medley relay, easily beating the Tridents’ A team by 5.49 seconds. Dittrich, Johnson, Breanna Kraemer and Jackie Williams took third in 2:15.16 and Janda, Tana Rappe, Haenel and Wilkins were fifth at 2:30.8.

Petersen, Kodi Rappe, Bergman and Sperl pulled away in the latter stages of the race and won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:08.6, a 6.49-second margin. Williams, Kraemer, Tana Rappe and Dittrich took third for Medford at 4:31.11.

“We continue to keep switching things up and seeing different things,” Wilson said. “It’s really great to feel good about a lineup even if changes have to be made at the last second, which happened today, or if we want to see girls in different things.”

Bergman continued her recent success in the longer freestyles. She won the 200-yard freestyle in a season-best 2:13.37, while Tana Rappe took second in a season- best 2:19.39, beating Trident Nayeli Schilling by 0.9 seconds, and Janda added two points by taking fourth in 2:37.59. Bergman shaved a few more tenths off her 500-yard time, winning in 5:52.28 while Dittrich was third in a season-best 6:07.64, 9.63 seconds behind Trident Hannah Minton. Janda lowered her time to 7:01.07 and placed fifth.

Gebauer won twice individually, starting with the 50-yard freestyle that she took in 26.77 seconds, 1.6 seconds ahead of Ladysmith’s Abby Fye. Haenel took third in 30.13 seconds. Gebauer won her signature event, the 100-yard breaststroke, in 1:16.11, a 5.72-second margin over Madilyn Kempen, while Johnson was third in an improved time of 1:22.23 and Wilkins was sixth in 1:36.38.

Sperl also was a double winner, starting with 200-yard individual medley. She swam that in 2:23.71, her best time of the fall, while Johnson was third in 2:39.75 and trailed Minton by 4.72 seconds. Williams got the fifth-place point at 2:49.09. Sperl then won the 100-yard butterfly in 1:06.26, beating Kempen by 1.48 seconds. Petersen was third in 1:10.69 and Kodi Rappe was sixth in 1:21.06 as all three Raiders set season-best times.

Senior Breanna Kraemer had a solid meet as well. She won the 100-yard backstroke by 1.72 seconds over Ladysmith’s Alyxandria Lunemann with her time of 1:10.48, while Petersen was third in 1:12.88 and Williams was fourth in 1:14.92. Kraemer was second in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:04.35, 1.53 seconds behind Fye, while Fryklund was fourth in 1:09.8 and Haenel was fifth in 1:10.07.

“Breanna had some nice swims,” Wilson said. “We put Jackie in the backstroke for the first time and she crushed it. That was a nice time for the first time. I don’t know honestly if she’s ever swam that in three years. She’s done breaststroke a lot and sort of become our third IMer. Backstroke might be her thing these last couple of meets.”

Klapatauskas won both JV races. She won the 100-yard freestyle in 1:12.91, while teammate Chloe Pipkorn was second in 1:17.8. Klapatauskas took the 50yard freestyle in 31.65 seconds, followed by Pipkorn (33.3) and Wilkins (35.54).

The Raiders will face undermanned Lakeland in Minocqua today, Thursday, and Mosinee at home on Oct. 12 to finish GNC duals. As they head into October, the Raiders will put in some heavy yardage in practice as the conference and sectional meets suddenly don’t seem so far away.

“(Last) week was kinda the start of ramping it up,” Wilson said. “So (this) week we’ll have a couple of double days, the week after we’ll have a couple more double days and we’ll keep working up until the conference meet and then we’ll start tapering for sectionals and hope to start seeing some big time drops.”

Raider senior Paige Wilkins pushes toward a time of 1:36.38 in Thursday’s 100-yard breaststroke.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS