A first for the Raiders: All seven flights land in GNC’s top three

ALL-GNC BOYS TENNIS

The Medford Raiders made history by earning some kind of All-Great Northern Conference award in all seven flights at the 2021 conference meet, hosted by Rhinelander on Friday, June 4.

The Raiders earned second place in the meet with 31 points, which trailed the host Hodags by six. Rhinelander won the overall conference title for the 2021 season with 135 points, while Medford compiled 113, 44 more than third-place Antigo.

The five-school conference was hurt by low participation numbers during the season, which didn’t start until the first week of May under this year’s altered WIAA calendar. Lakeland only had two to three players in meets and never won a match, while Antigo and Stevens Point Pacelli also didn’t always have full lineups. Newman Catholic did not field a team after last playing in the league in 2019.

Medford’s Ethan Swiantek and Brayden Balciar earned first-team honors by winning championships in flight three and flight four singles. Both went on to win WIAA Division 2 sectional titles at those flights as well.

Swiantek, a senior, finished the year at a perfect 16-0 while playing matches in the top three singles flights over the course of the season. Thirteen of those wins came at number-three, including six in GNC duals. As the one-seed in the flight-three bracket in the GNC, Swiantek clinched the conference title with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Rhinelander’s Leo Losch.

Balciar, a freshman, had a standout first year, going 11-2 while playing in flights three and four. He was 5-1 in GNC duals in flight four, losing only to Antigo’s Nolan Bunnell in a three-set match on May 14. After that, Balciar took two three-set matches against Bunnell, including a 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 win in the GNC title match.

Junior Quinton Tlusty was the second- place finisher in the conference in flight two to earn his first All-GNC award as a second-teamer. He fell in the final to Rhinelander freshman Joey Belanger 6-3, 6-0. Those two had split their matches during the dual meets. Tlusty (12-3 overall) was 5-1 in GNC duals prior to the GNC meet and he finished second in his sectional bracket, losing to state qualifier Joseph Wentz of Amery in the flight’s sectional final.

Senior Logan Searles, an All-GNC second-team player in 2019 in flight four, got honorable mention by taking third in flight at the GNC tournament. He was 4-3 in GNC duals with two losses to GNC Player of the Year Jacob Weddle of Rhinelander and one to Antigo’s Garrett Husnick. Searles lost to Husnick 7-5, 6-0 in a GNC semifinal but he won the thirdplace match 6-4, 7-6 (4) over Stevens Point Pacelli’s Charlie Kulick. Searles and Husnick both earned WIAA Division 2 state berths out of the Altoona sectional.

Searles finished the year 10-7 overall after losing 7-5, 6-0 at state to Appleton Xavier’s Andrew Minorik.

All three of Medford’s doubles teams landed All-GNC second-team honors after losing to Rhinelander in championship matches.

The number-one team of seniors Tahtankka Damm and Kevin Damm beat Antigo’s Jerome Jones and Sam Bretl 6-2, 6-0 in a semifinal before Hodag juniors Luke Ring and Elijah Evers got them 6-1, 7-6 (5). Tahtankka Damm earned a second- team honor in 2019 with Luis Silva in flight two, while Kevin Damm got honorable mention that year in flight three with Cooper Wild.

The Damms went 4-3 in GNC duals and went on to earn a special qualifier spot in the WIAA Division 2 state tournament, where Jack Merrick and Anderson Lowry of Eau Claire Regis beat them 6-1, 6-1. The Damms finished the year 8-8.

Sophomore Saskatoon Damm and freshman Adam Swedlund beat Pacelli’s Brian Pekarek and Eli Robinson 6-2, 6-0 in a GNC flight-two semifinal before All-GNC tennis teams filled with Raiders

Rhinelander’s Layne Roeser and Billy Berwig beat them 6-4, 6-4 in the final. They were paired late in the year and went 1-2 in GNC duals prior to the tournament and went 1-1 in the WIAA Division 2 Eau Claire Regis subsectional.

In flight three, junior Brayden Machon and sophomore Dante Axon also took over their spot in the lineup late, going 2-1 in GNC duals and then beating Pacelli’s Ian Osypowski and Dominic Kroening 6-0, 6-0 in the league semifinals. Rhinelander’s Jake Losch and Joseph Heck beat them 6-2, 6-2 in the flight championship.

Machon and Axon beat Ashland’s team in the subsectional and advanced to the sectional tournament, where they went 0-2.

Medford went 6-2 in GNC duals and 10-2 overall. The Raiders tied La Crosse Aquinas for the sectional team championship, but they lost the tiebreaker and just missed out on the chance to compete in the WIAA Division 2 team state tennis tournament for the first time in school history.

Brayden Balciar First TeamAdam Swedlund Second Team

Brayden Machon Second TeamKevin Damm Second Team

Tahtankka Damm Second Team

Dante Axon Second Team

Continued from page 5

Logan Searles Hon. Mention

Quinton Tlusty Second Team