MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING - Swimmers find success in competitive GNC dual meets

MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING

A competitive dual meet featuring two teams of similar depth and talent created a fun environment Tuesday at the MASH pool, where Medford’s boys swim team came up a little short in a 77-62 Great Northern Conference loss to Antigo.

Medford got two wins from sophomore Logan Rouiller, who took the 200and 500-yard freestyles, and another from junior Mason Reimann, who won an exciting 200-yard individual medley with Antigo’s Ezra Santiago. Medford also claimed the 200-yard freestyle.

But it wasn’t quite enough as Antigo won the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays and had a little more depth in the individual races to get the win and improve to 2-1 in GNC duals.

The Raiders are already done with their four conference duals and fell to 0-4.

“It was a fun night,” Medford head coach Terry Werner said.

Medford’s inexperienced crew continued to meet its season-long goal of cutting times and to pick up some wins was an added bonus.

The individual medley was easily the closest race of the meet. Reimann led Santiago by 0.06 seconds after the opening butterfly leg, Santiago got ahead by 1.31 seconds after the backstroke leg, but Reimann opened up a 1.52-second lead after the breaststroke. It came down to the 50-yard freestyle sprint where Santiago made a late push, but Reimann’s time of 2:29.86 was just enough to win by 0.05 seconds.

“He’s been working at the one,” Werner said. “I don’t think he’d ever beaten that swimmer before, so that was a big deal.”

Santiago got his revenge in the 100yard butterfly, winning in 1:03.5 ahead of Reimann’s 1:07.98, which was Reimann’s best time of the season by 2.31 seconds. In the medley, he cut 6.99 seconds.

Rouiller won the 200-yard freestyle convincingly in 2:15.89, well ahead of Antigo’s Garrett Tomzcyk (2:27.1). Raider Rhys Buskerud was fourth in 3:13.49. Rouiller cut 4.24 seconds off his previous season-best time, while Buskerud dropped 3.84 seconds. In the 500, Rouiller swam solo, finishing in an improved 6:08.53.

“Logan dropped time even though he was racing against himself, which is pretty good,” Werner said.

Buskerud, Roger Mann, Reese Travis and Reimann took the 200-yard freestyle relay win in 2:08.12, beating Antigo by 3.36 seconds. Putting Reimann in that event helped Medford lower its time in that event for the season by 27 seconds.

Mann took second in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke. His freestyle time of 1:09.27 trailed Antigo’s Aiden Anderson (1:05.06) but was easily ahead of third-place Red Robin Zander Reetz (1:16.75). Travis was fourth in 1:17.16, cutting more than three seconds. Mann’s improved time of 1:25.23 in the breaststroke put him just behind Antigo’s Rutger Busse (1:22.78). Travis knocked a couple more seconds off his time in the 50-yard freestyle and placed second in 32.05 seconds, while Dawson Gasek dropped 4.32 seconds down to 35.56 seconds to place fifth. Raider Brandon Curtis was sixth in 42.16 seconds. Curtis later made major strides in the 100-yard backstroke, taking third in 1:56.45, dropping more than 20 seconds from his last meet.

Mann, Buskerud, Reimann and Rouiller swam the medley relay in 2:22.96, trailing Antigo’s top team by 15.09 seconds. They were 11.53 seconds ahead of Antigo’s B team. Curtis, Travis, Gasek and Rouiller swam the 400-yard freestyle in 5:36.11 Antigo won in 4:14.99.

Medford next hosts Menomonie in a non-conference meet on Dec. 21. Start time is 5:30 p.m.

Loss at Shawano

On Thursday, the Raiders showed some significant improvements from their first dual meets of the season on Nov. 30 to their 93-51 GNC loss to host Shawano-Seymour.

Rouiller got a nice win for Medford, taking the 500-yard freestyle in 6:13.19, beating Ben Langlois by 15.45 seconds. He also led the Raiders in the 200-yard freestyle with a second-place time of 2:20.13. The home team’s Jeelat Rongroatpunyakul won in 2:17.82. Buskerud was third in 3:17.33, improving by more than 13 seconds from a week earlier.

Reimann cut almost six seconds while taking second in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:10.29. He fell just 0.87 seconds behind Rongroatpunyakul. Reimann added a second-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:36.85, trailing Langolis’ time of 2:29.11.

Mann sliced his 100-yard breaststroke time by 7.22 seconds and took second in 1:27.61. He was 5.61 seconds behind Conner Patz. Mann added a second-place time of 1:10.53 in his first 100-yard freestyle of the season. Baelyan Putz won that for Shawano-Seymour in 1:04.57. Travis was fourth in 1:20.77, improving by 7.1 seconds.

Gasek swam the 100-yard backstroke for the first time and took third in 1:47.53, while Curtis was fourth in a slightlyimproved time of 2:16.99. Aidan Court won that for the hosts in 1:28.85. All three Raider entrants had improved times in the 50-yard freestyle with Travis taking fourth in 34.71 seconds, Gasek placing fifth (39.88) and Curtis taking sixth (41.87). Court won the race in 29.24 seconds.

Medford was second in all three relays.

Mann, Buskerud, Reimann and Rouiller finished the 200-yard medley relay in 2:29.56, won by the Hawks in 2:06.45. Curtis, Buskerud, Travis and Mann were clocked at 2:35.34 in the 200-yard freestyle relay, won by Shawano-Seymour in 1:55.63. Travis, Gasek, Reimann and Rouiller swam the 400-yard freestyle in 5:11.45. The hosts won that in 4:32.72.

Raider Logan Rouiller swims toward a win in the 200-yard freestyle during Tuesday’s meet with Antigo. He finished the race in 2:15.89. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS