Medford hosts Great Northern boys swim championships Friday

What: The 2024 Great Northern Conference’s boys swimming championships.

Where: Medford Area Senior High pool.

When: Friday, Feb. 2 at 5 p.m. Who: Teams from Medford, Rhinelander, Tomahawk, Antigo and Shawano-Seymour. Lakeland was scheduled to host Friday’s meet, but the Thunderbirds did not field a team this winter, bumping Medford up a year in the rotation as the host team.

What’s at stake: The Great Northern Conference team championship and individual awards for 2023-24 will be determined. Teams earned two points per win during the four-meet round-robin portion of the schedule in December. On Friday, the meet winner will gain 12 more points, the second-place team will gain 10, etc. Event winners will gain first-team All-GNC status, second-place finishers will be the second-team award winners and thirdplace finishers earn honorable mention.

Last year’s champion: Rhinelander, who has won the last five GNC titles. The Hodags also are the defending WIAA Division 2 state champions.

Regular season results: The Rhinelander Hodags went 4-0 in the December duals and were also unchallenged in the unofficial GNC double-duals that took place between the teams in January. Tomahawk went 3-1 in the duals but did lose to Antigo in a double-dual in Medford Jan. 9. Antigo (2-2), Shawano-Seymour (1-3) and Medford (0-4) rounded out the dual-meet standings.

Swimmers to watch: Rhinelander dominated the individual results in every event this winter. It will just be a matter of who the Hodags put where as they clinch their sixth straight title. Rhinelander has the top two ranked teams in each of the three relays –– the 200-yard medley, the 200-yard freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle.

Rhinelander junior Shawn Denis is the top-ranked swimmer in the 200-yard individual medley (2:05.55), the 50-yard freestyle (22.42) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.4). Hodag junior Brock Arrowood is the top-ranked swimmer in the 500-yard freestyle (5:23.13) and in the 100-yard freestyle (50.41), plus he’s ranked second in the 100-yard butterfly (57.13). Hodag senior Zacha King is ranked first in the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.24) and in the 100yard butterfly (55.59). Rhinelander junior Dolan O’Malley ranks first in the 100-yard backstroke (58.17), followed by freshman Judson O’Malley (59.06).

Tomahawk junior Zach Germano is ranked fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (1:09.82), freshman Dane DeKiep is ranked sixth in the backstroke (1:01.39) and junior Sam Zastrow is ranked eighth in the 200-yard freestyle and individual medley.

Antigo’s Ezra Santiago is ranked eighth in the 100-yard butterfly and Dawson Behm is ranked eighth in the 500-yard freestyle. Shawano-Seymour’s Ben Langlois is ranked seventh in the 50-yard freestyle and eighth in the 100-yard freestyle.

Medford sophomore Logan Rouiller ranks seventh in the 500-yard freestyle (5:52.46) and has made strong gains in the 200-yard freestyle. Junior Mason Reimann could score well in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard butterfly.

–– Sports Editor Matt Frey