MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING - Raiders off to a strong start with a win and a 2nd

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

To head coach Sam Klinner, the Medford Raiders are just scratching the surface of what they can accomplish. But at this obviously very early stage of the girls swim season, the results have been quite good.

Following up a near team win at Saturday’s Menomonie Relays, Medford pulled away from Merrill for a 99-71 win Tuesday at the Prairie River Middle School pool in the first dual meet of the season for both teams.

The Raiders won seven events, got the second-place points in the four events they didn’t win and got the third-place points in seven races to comfortably take the non-conference win.

“Those relays (Saturday) went way better than we expected,” Klinner said after the win. “Part of it is they’re a really, really good team and they’ve got a lot of talent. But there’s way more there. I’m excited for the way more.”

Five different individuals won races and Medford took two of the three relays. Chiara D’Arienzo, Sydney Sperl, Tana Rappe and Chelsea Gebauer won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:51.57, 2.19 seconds ahead of Merrill’s top team. Kodi Rappe, Tori Nicks, Adalyn Dittrich and Jayda Fryklund got the two third-place points at 1:56.44 and Mata Decker, Elizabeth Bartnik, Autumn Venzke and Aliyah Galan took fifth at 2:34.06.

Tana Rappe, Sophie Sperl, Layla Petersen and Nicks ended the meet by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:24.45, 6.21 seconds ahead of Merrill’s A team. Cadance Haenel, Venzke, Galan and Fryklund took third in 5:05.62.

Sydney Sperl won a close race in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:30.67. She beat Merrill’s Olivia Pajtash by 0.24 seconds. Sophie Sperl took fourth in 2:39.89. Sophie Sperl won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:16.67, 0.84 seconds ahead of Pajtash. Gebauer (1:25.03) and Petersen (1:25.99) were fourth and fifth.

Gebauer got the win in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:00.09, 1.97 seconds ahead of Blue Jay Claire Jirovec. Kodi and Tana Rappe were third and fourth in 1:02.35 and 1:04.13. Tana Rappe was Medford’s first winner, taking the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 2:17.57, 3.61 seconds ahead of Merrill’s Emily Winter. Nicks was third at 2:28.45 and Galan got the fifth-place point at 2:55.52.

Dittrich took the lead early and never let it go in the 500yard freestyle, finishing in 6:11.51. Fryklund was a solid third at 6:39.38 and Haenel was fifth at 7:07.97. Dittrich added a runner-up finish in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:16.15. Addison Jirovec won in 1:09.32. Nicks (1:18.42) and Fryklund (1:23.41) were third and fifth. Merrill’s Marissa Miles won the 100-yard butterfly in 1:03.22, but Medford got nine points with D’Arienzo (1:10.22), Sydney Sperl (1:12.44) and Petersen (1:13.2) taking second through fourth. D’Arienzo was just 0.37 seconds behind Miles in the 50-yard freestyle with her time of 26.62 seconds. Kodi Rappe (27.48) and Haenel (30.0) were third and fifth.

Sydney Sperl, Sophie Sperl, D’Arienzo and Gebauer swam the 200-yard medley relay in 2:02.23 to fall 0.4 seconds behind Merrill’s winning team. Dittrich, Kodi Rappe, Petersen and Haenel took third in 2:11.29.

Medford was uncontested in two JV races. Venzke (35.91), Bartnik (40.45) and Decker (41.46) swam the 50-yard freestyle, while Galan (1:21.62), Decker (1:31.58) and Bartnik (1:35.96) swam the 100-yard freestyle.

The Raiders start a three-meet home swing tonight, Thursday, with a 5:30 p.m. non-conference meet with Marshfield. Great Northern Conference competition starts Sept. 5 against Mosinee, also at 5:30 p.m.

2nd at Menomonie

Medford had four second-place finishes since 2011 in the Menomonie Relays, and their fifth one Saturday came very close to being their first win in the season-opening meet.

The Raiders scored 400 points and finished two points behind defending WIAA Division 2 state champion Rhinelander in the 10-team meet, which included several Division 1 teams. Without winning a race, the Raiders still scored well with three seconds and two thirds, and their depth added some solid B team swims that nearly pushed them into the top spot. Rhinelander won eight of the nine events with first-place finishes earning 40 points each.

“There are some things we saw that we have to work on and clean up, but we all felt it was a really solid first meet,” assistant coach Mandy Haenel said. “From our time trials during practice last week all the girls dropped seconds, most of them 3-5 seconds, from time trials to Saturday.”

Medford’s first runner-up finish came in the 200-yard freestyle, one of two races conducted Saturday that swimmers compete in during typical meets. Sophie Sperl, Kodi Rappe, Nicks and D’Arienzo teamed up for a time of 1:53.04, which clipped third-place Eau Claire North by a half-second. The Hodags won in 1:45.3.

Next, the 200-yard butterfly team of D’Arienzo, Kodi Rappe, Petersen and Sydney Sperl finished second in 2:03.81, comfortably ahead of the third-place Black River Falls Co-op (2:07.95). Rhinelander won in 1:54.02.

Late in the meet, Medford’s 200-yard breaststroke team of Gebauer, Sydney Sperl, Kodi Rappe and Sophie Sperl came in at 2:22.8, 0.66 seconds ahead of third-place Marshfield. Rhinelander swam away with the win in 2:08.62. Medford’s B team of Petersen, Fryklund, Dittrich and Tana Rappe earned 26 eighth-place points at 2:41.44.

In the meet’s other more familiar race, Sydney Sperl, Sophie Sperl, D’Arienzo and Gebauer took third in the 200-yard medley relay at 2:02.27, while Fryklund, Kodi Rappe, Petersen and Haenel were sixth and earned 30 points with a time of 2:10.73. Rhinelander (1:55.18) and Marshfield (2:01.51) were the top two teams.

Tana Rappe, Fryklund, Haenel and Dittrich placed third in the 200-yard backstroke relay in 2:16.91, trailing Rhinelander (1:54.44) and the La Crosse Logan Co-op (2:07.13). The team of Venzke, Bartnik, Decker and Nicks was eighth at 3:04.06.

Medford placed fourth and seventh in the 850-yard crescendo relay, where the first swimmers went 50 yards, the second swimmers went 100 yards, the third swimmers went 200 yards and the fourth swimmers covered the last 500. D’Arienzo, Gebauer, Tana Rappe and Dittrich finished in 10:06.91, while Galan, Nicks, Fryklund and Haenel finished in 11:35.88. Sophie Sperl, Petersen, Gebauer and Sydney Sperl had a fifth-place time of 4:47.72 in the 400-yard medley relay. In the 400-yard freestyle pineapple relay, Nicks, Tana Rappe, Decker, Bartnik, Venzke, Galan, Haenel and Dittrich took eighth in 4:33.97. The 100-yard freestyle team of Venzke, Bartnik, Decker and Galan sprinted to a 13th-place time of 1:11.12.

The Logan Co-op placed third in the team standings with 370 points, followed by Marshfield (306), Eau Claire North (278), Rice Lake (276), Black River Falls (218), River Falls (198), Menomonie (166) and Wisconsin Rapids (130).

Medford senior Tana Rappe pushes toward a victory in the 200-yard freestyle during Tuesday’s non-conference meet at Merrill. Rappe finished in 2:17.57 to win the race by 3.61 seconds. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS