Raiders prep for Hodags with an easy home win

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

The Medford Raiders should win several Great Northern Conference girls swim dual meets this fall because of their depth.

The fun part at this point of the season for coaches Morgan Wilson and Markki Farmer is figuring out how best to use that depth by the end of the season.

Thursday’s 115-52 win over Antigo in the home and GNC opener was one of those occasions where fans aren’t likely to see the swimmers lined up that way again, but there were plenty of successes with the switches.

“Some of the girls have fun with it,” Wilson said after collecting her first win as the team’s head coach. “Some of them don’t like what they get mixed into, but it’s just because they’re not used to it or not confident in a different event. But that’s what we’re trying to do is make sure they’re confident in a majority of events. We may keep switching it up, keep other teams on their toes potentially and have fun. It’s really nice to have girls be able to swim multiple things and be able to change it up and have that luxury to put them in different things and still have a good outcome.”

Senior Aiden Denzer moved to the 500yard freestyle and led a Medford sweep of the top spots with a time of 6:05.95. Jordyn Johnson and Kirsten Weix were next at 6:28.81 and 6:48.58.

Sydney Sperl and Chelsea Gebauer both won two individual events. Sperl won the 200-yard freestyle in 2:20.35, while Breanna Kraemer got second in 2:27.84 and Adalyn Dittrich got two fourth-place points in 2:35.34. All three spots were filled by different swimmers than Medford’s meet in Merrill two nights earlier. Sperl later won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:08.21 with Kraemer again in second at 1:12.71 and Dittrich in fifth at 1:21.53.

Gebauer won her usual event, the 100yard breaststroke in 1:17.14 and took the 50-yard freestyle, an event she’s not normally in, with a a time of 27.59 seconds, 0.23 seconds ahead of Antigo’s Chloe Tainter. Johnson was third in 28.53 seconds and Raider McKenzie Petersen was sixth in 32.75 seconds. Denzer was second in the breaststroke at 1:20.78 and Weix was fourth in 1:35.81.

With a time of 2:41.46, Colby Bergman won the 200-yard individual medley, an event that had two new faces. Freshman Layla Petersen was third in 2:56.15 and sophomore Cadance Haenel got the fifthplace point in 3:14.01.

“Cadance Haenel has never swam the 200 IM before but she really crushed it for her first time. Same with Layla,” Wilson said. “It’s nice that they were able to jump in there and do that and have success. It’s nice to have that flexibility and freedom for sure.”

Bergman added a second-place time of 1:15.97 in the 100-yard butterfly, 6.77 seconds behind Tainter. Erica Brandner (1:20.07) and Tana Rappe (1:25.71) got the third- and fourth-place points for Medford. Kassidy Koncel was second in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:10.09, while McKenzie Petersen (1:10.52) and Haenel (1:14.06) weren’t far behind in fourth and fifth place.

All nine of Medford’s relay entrants were different combinations than any that had been used in the team’s previous three meets.

The Raiders took the top two spots in the 200-yard freestyle relay race with Denzer, Bergman, Gebauer and Rappe winning it in 1:57.25. Brandner, Koncel, Haenel and Weix were next at 2:05.4 and the team of Paige Wilkins, Jolie Steliga, Dittrich and Layla Petersen was fourth in 2:20.44.

Denzer, Gebauer, Sperl and Rappe won the 200-yard medley relay in 2:03.84, beating Antigo’s team by 10.93 seconds. Kraemer, Johnson, Brandner and McKenzie Petersen were third in 2:16.16 and Dittrich, Layla Petersen, Koncel and Steliga were fourth in 2:26.93.

Sperl, Johnson, Bergman and Rappe closed out the home opener by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:15.46, beating Antigo’s group by 14.91 seconds. Kraemer, Weix, Brandner and McKenzie Petersen took third in 4:33.96 and Steliga, Koncel, Layla Petersen and Haenel were fourth at 4:47.94.

Steliga won the JV 50-yard freestyle in 30.84 seconds, while Wilkins was third (45.93). Wilkins swam the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:59.47 to win it.

Medford has a tough one today, Thursday, visiting Rhinelander for a 5 p.m. start. The Hodags have won three straight GNC titles and are coming off a second-place finish in last year’s WIAA Division 2 state championships.

“You never know, we might switch some girls again, see what we got,” Wilson said. “Rhinelander is so tough, very tough. We’re going in with an attitude of have fun, give it your best and go for personal bests, go for cutting time.”