Swimmers have no trouble with the Red Robins

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

The Medford Raiders won the first four events while building a quick 45-17 lead and rolled from there to a 117-51 girls swim win over Antigo Thursday at the MASH pool.

The Raiders’ success included sweeps of the top three places in three individual events and easy wins in all three relays.

Medford improved to 2-1 in Great Northern Conference duals, while the Red Robins slipped to 1-2.

The first individual sweep came in the meet’s second race, the 200-yard freestyle. Medford’s junior newcomer this season, Lydia Pernsteiner, earned her first high school win with a time of 2:35.17, while sophomore Kirsten Weix was second in 2:39.43 and junior Shaniah Brandt was third in 2:44.57, beating her time from a week earlier by 5.94 seconds.

“The 200 free was huge for us,” head coach Betsy Meinel said. “Lydia dropped 10 seconds. Kiersten dropped seven. Those were awesome. That was really nice to see.”

Lacey Brandner swam her first 100yard freestyle of the season and got the easy win with a time of 1:03.92. Weix came in at 1:13.44 and Olivia Rau was third in 1:16.43, 0.83 seconds ahead of Antigo’s Olivia Braun. Right after that, Aiden Denzer cruised to victory in her first 500-yard freestyle of the fall with a time of 6:16.22. Freshman Jackie Williams finished in 6:59.99 and edged her sister Maddie Williams by 1.02 seconds to earn runner-up honors.

“Jackie had a great first 500,” Meinel said. “She didn’t really know how to swim it going in, but she had a great time. We will take that especially when you don’t know how to swim it. You don’t want to go too fast. That’s where it hurt Maddie a little bit. She just went a little fast at the beginning.”

Earlier in the meet, Denzer won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:32.82, beating Antigo’s Alyssa Tincher by 10.18 seconds. Raider freshman Colby Bergman was third in a season-best 2:49.72, while freshman Breanna Kraemer was fourth in 2:55.6.

On Senior Night, Erin Bergman took the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke. Her sprint time was 27.27 seconds, 0.04 seconds ahead of teammate Kami Razink. Maddie Williams got the fifth-place point at 32.62 seconds. In the breaststroke, Bergman won handily in 1:17.59, while Jackie Williams was fourth in 1:35.16 and Rau shaved a tenth of a second by taking sixth in 1:44.16.

Senior Morgan Ball matched up with Antigo’s top swimmer, Heather Arlen, in two events. Ball swam the 100-yard butterfl y in 1:06.42 to take seconds, 1.79 seconds behind Arlen. Colby Bergman was third in 1:19.8 while swimming the event for the first time and Kraemer was fourth in 1:26.28. Ball swam the 100-yard backstroke, a rarity for her, in 1:10.11 to take second, 3.39 seconds behind Arlen. Pernsteiner was third in 1:26.77 and Brandt was fourth at 1:29.07.

The Raiders outscored Antigo 10-4 in all three relays. It started with the 200-yard medley relay where Erin Bergman, Denzer, Ball and Razink finished in 2:01.97, 13.06 seconds ahead of Antigo’s top team. Maddie Williams, Jackie Williams, Kraemer and Brandner were third in 2:22.23. Weix, Colby Bergman, Brandner and Razink were the winning combination in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 2:01.38 and had a 12.65-second margin Swim wins

of victory. Brandt, Pernsteiner, Rau and Jackie Williams took third in 2:18.06.

Denzer, Razink, Ball and Erin Bergman finished the meet with a winning time of 4:07.97 in the 400-yard freestyle relay. They beat Antigo’s top team by 16.75 seconds. Maddie Williams, Colby Bergman, Weix and Brandner were third in 4:45.34, while Brandt, Kraemer, Rau and Pernsteiner were fourth at 5:08.53.

Medford has a tough one tonight, visiting Rhinelander for a 5:30 p.m. meet. The Hodags have been dominant in their 3-0 start, beating their GNC opponents by an average of 93 points.

Medford hosts Tomahawk on Oct. 1.