Swimmers cruise to win at Lakeland; home finale is today

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

The Medford Raiders eased to another Great Northern Conference girls swim win Thursday, defeating host Lakeland 107-53.

The result was not unexpected with the T-Birds carrying just seven swimmers on their roster, a couple of whom are formidable. That just wasn’t nearly enough to hang with the Raiders, who won all three relays and added five individual victories.

Medford is 5-1 in the GNC heading into tonight’s dual-meet finale against Mosinee at the MASH pool. The Raiders’ last home appearance of 2023, which will be celebrated as Senior Night, begins at 5:30 p.m.

“We’re excited for Thursday and being able to celebrate our big senior class as they swim in their last home meet,” head coach Morgan Wilson said.

Medford led wire to wire at Lakeland, starting with the 200-yard medley relay team of Sydney Sperl, Chelsea Gebauer, Kodi Rappe and Colby Bergman winning its race in 2:04.15, 4.67 seconds ahead of Lakeland’s top squad. Breanna Kraemer, Jackie Williams, Layla Petersen and Ady Dittrich got the third-place points for Medford in 2:12.39.

Rappe, Williams, Jordyn Johnson and Petersen won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:54.01. The Raiders made it a 12-point event with Cadance Haenel, Kassidy Janda, Mackenzie Petersen and Kraemer taking second in 2:04.19, 15.84 seconds ahead of Lakeland’s entry.

Gebauer, Rappe, Bergman and Sperl finished the meet by winning the 400yard freestyle relay in 4:12.49, 10.17 seconds ahead of Lakeland’s squad. Dittrich, Williams, Kraemer and Johnson were third in 4:29.

“We have some things to clean up before the end of the year,” Wilson said. “Some of our relay exchanges haven’t been up to the standard we want and we’re seeing some bad habits come out every once in a while that we’re working on squashing for good before conference and sectionals.”

Sperl and Johnson took the top two spots for Medford in the 200-yard freestyle at 2:14.32 and 2:19.12, while Janda got the fifth-place point at 2:36. Johnson added a win in the 100-yard breaststroke with her best time of the fall at 1:20.36. Layla Petersen’s second-place time of 1:24.59 was her best of the season as was the fourth-place time of 1:32.96 for Paige Wilkins. Sperl also took second in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:08.83, while Layla Petersen was third at 1:11.43. They trailed Lakeland’s Olivia Mickle (1:05.57).

Dittrich continued to lower her time in the 500-yard freestyle, winning it in a personal-best 6:03.97. Mackenzie Petersen was second in 6:30.77. This was Petersen’s first 500 of her high-school career. She beat Lakeland’s Jadyn Wentland by 10.66 seconds for the second spot.

“Ady is continuing to consistently drop time and is pushing really hard in practice and at meets to keep improv- ing,” Wilson said. “Mackenzie swam the 500 for the first time ever and swam an impressive time. That is one of the big positives to having numbers that we don’t feel like we have to pigeon hole girls into particular events and can see different swims from all the girls.”

Bergman and Rappe had a close race in the 200-yard individual medley. Bergman beat Rappe by 0.54 seconds to win it in 2:33.34. Bergman added a second-place time of 1:02.53 in the 100-yard freestyle, 2.95 seconds behind Lakeland’s Saylor Timmerman. Haenel was fourth in 1:10.06 and Janda took fifth in 1:13.85.

Gebauer won the 50-yard freestyle in 27.04 seconds, 1.97 seconds ahead of Dittrich. Haenel was fourth in 30.62 seconds. Kraemer took third for Medford in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:11.15, followed by Gebauer (1:12.2) and Williams (1:16.52). Mickle won the backstroke in 1:01.46.

Jolie Steliga won the JV 50- and 100yard freestyles. She swam the 50 in 29.76 seconds to beat teammates Lindsey Klapatauskas (32.6), Chloe Pipkorn (34.0) and Wilkins (34.25). Steliga swam the 100 in 1:06.58, while Jayda Fryklund (1:09.2) was second.

After tonight’s meet with Mosinee, the Raiders will gear up for the Great Northern Conference championships, which will be held at Antigo at 5 p.m on Friday, Oct. 20.