MEDFORD SWIM CLUB - Medford Aquafins complete busy, successful season, send 5 to state

MEDFORD SWIM CLUB

The Medford Aquafins Swim Club ended a successful winter season by claiming 10 championships and earning 93 top-10 finishes at the Central Wisconsin Swim Conference’s two-day championship meet held Feb. 3-4 at Black River Falls.

Fourteen teams were represented in the conference meet. The Aqua Fins placed sixth with 926 points. The deep Lakeland (2,637) and Rhinelander (2,549.5) swim clubs took the top two spots in the team standings.

Aquafins who competed at Black River Falls qualified for the meet by placing among the top 18 finishers in their events at CWSC’s Eastern Divisional meet, held Jan. 27-28 at Merrill.

“Overall we had a really successful year,” Aquafins head coach Jeremy Sperl said. Sperl was assisted this season by Janelle Hamland. “We had a lot of personal best times, a lot of just really good kids, working hard. We had 141 personal-best times at divisionals out of 45 or so kids. We were averaging more than two personal best times per kid. We ended up having five kids make state cuts.”

By hitting pre-set time standards, those five swimmers –– Violet Hamland, Mallory Hackbarth, Brynn Hackbarth, Adalyn Hackbarth and Sophie Sperl –– will compete in USA Swimming state meets the next two weekends.

All state qualifiers from the CWSC will now join together and compete as the Northern Lakes Aquatic Club as they advance to state and Midwest regional competition. The three Hackbarth sisters and Hamland will compete in the Wisconsin Swimming 10-and-under state championships in Ashwaubenon this weekend, while Sophie Sperl will swim in the 11-14 age group championships to be held at the Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex March 1-3.

During the 2023-24 season, there were close to 60 youths ranging in age from 6 to 15 who swam with the Aquafins at some point during the season. Meets were held Saturday starting in early December in places like Phillips, Antigo, Merrill, Tomahawk and Rhinelander. Medford held its home meet on Jan. 6.

“Our goal at the club level is really to develop kids to be able to compete at the next level, whether that’s high school or at the USA level,” Jeremy Sperl said. “When we compete at state we’re affiliated with USA Swimming which is ultimately the same governing body that governs the Olympics. We follow the same rules. Our goal is to develop kids to be able to compete at whatever level they want. When you look at our high school team, most of our top high school swimmers are all coming through the club, both boys and girls. It’s developing those things that are necessary to be able to compete at that next level.”

Swimming in the girls 13-14 age group, Sophie Sperl claimed three conference championships individually. She took the 200-yard breaststroke by nearly five seconds in a time of 2:49.66, won the 50-yard breaststroke in 34.05 seconds, 0.77 seconds ahead of Merrill’s Marissa Miles and took the 100-yard breaststroke, the event she qualified for state in, with a time of 1:16.09, 4.06 seconds ahead of Rice Lake’s Elise Johnson.

Also in the 13-14 age group, Mylah Hamland won the conference title in the 200-yard backstroke at 2:34.65, 2.36 seconds ahead of Flambeau’s Nayeli Schilling.

Adalyn Hackbarth was a two-time individual champion in the girls 9-10 age group, taking the 50-yard breaststroke in 44.29 seconds and the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:39.84.

Mallory Hackbarth won the 8-and-under 50-yard butterfly in 43.66 seconds and was second in five more events, the 50yard breaststroke, the 100-yard freestyle, the 25-yard butterfly, the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard individual medley. Brynn Hackbarth won the 8-and-under 25-yard breaststroke in 23.92, a half-second ahead of Merrill’s Sierra Jannusch, and she was second in the 25-yard freestyle and 50yard backstroke.

The Aquafins got two relay wins from teams in the 11-14 age class and added two second-place 8-and-under finishes.

Sperl, Tori Nicks, Mylah Hamland and Kodi Rappe won the 11-14 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:54.1, 3.76 seconds ahead of Rhinelander, while Hamland, Sperl, Rappe and Livy Emmerich comfortably claimed the 200-yard medley relay in 2:05.22, 5.31 seconds ahead of Rhinelander.

Brynn Hackbarth, Bea Dixon, Mallory Hackbarth and Violet Hamland swam the 8-and-under 100-yard freestyle relay in 1:21.49, beating Rhinelander by 2.75 seconds for second place behind the top team from Bloomer (1:13.12). Violet Hamland, Brynn Hackbarth, Mallory Hackbarth and Dixon were second in the 100-yard medley relay at 1:29.81, well ahead of thirdplace Rhinelander (1:35.34) and behind Bloomer (1:25.93).

Rappe was the runner-up in the 13-14 200-yard individual medley in 2:34.87 and Blake Siverling was the Aquafins’ top male finisher of the weekend, placing second in the 8-and-under 25-yard breaststroke at 26.57 seconds, 0.93 seconds behind Flambeau’s Kayson Stanger.

The two Aquafins who took third were Brynn Hackbarth in the 8-and-under 50yard breaststroke and Mylah Hamland in the 13-14 50-yard backstroke.

Other Medford names among the highplacing results during the weekend included Ady Dittrich with a fourth-place finish in the 15-and-over 1,000-yard freestyle, James Miicke with a fifth-place finish in the boys 9-10 100-yard breaststroke, Caleb Krug with a sixth-place finish in the boys 8-and-under 25-yard backstroke, Saige Fettes with a sixth-place finish in the girls 11-12 500-yard freestyle, Carly Mildbrand with a seventh-place finish in the girls 200yard breaststroke, Haylee Emmerich with a seventh-place finish in the girls 8-andunder 25-yard backstroke, Jayda Fryklund with a seventh-place finish in the 15-andover 200-yard backstroke, Charlotte van der Berg with a seventh-place finish in the girls 11-12 200-yard freestyle and Emily Leao with a seventh-place finish in the girls 11-12 50-yard backstroke, just to name a few.

The top boys relay finish came from the 10-and-under 200-yard freestyle relay team of Ben Gasek, Krug, Siverling and Miicke, who took seventh in 3:16.05.

Jeremy Sperl said the success shown by the Aquafins during the season hopefully signals a bright future for the Medford Raiders’ high school swim programs in the future, particularly on the girls’ side. Finding more boys to swim is one of the club’s key goals moving forward.

“We’ve got a nice line of kids coming up that are going to continue to produce really well on the girls side at the high school level,” he said.

Adding new swimmers, parents, coaches and volunteers of course is an on-going goal for the club and its Board of Directors. Swimmers up to 18 years of age are welcome. Getting involved for most of the youngest swimmers starts with them attending swimming lessons at the MASH pool, then those who show the ability or desire to swim competitively can jump on board with the Aquafins.

“Then we work with kids in that elementary/ middle school age to get them to a level where they compete at either USA or high school,” Sperl said. It’s just a natural progression for kids to work through our program.”

The practices through the long winter season can be a grind, but Sperl said the coaches place an emphasis on fun.

“That’s the whole goal to try to make it fun,” Sperl said. “We do fun Fridays. Swimming is grueling. We play water polo, we do fun relays, sometimes we just have open time and the kids just play. They play volleyball they do all kinds of stuff, play music and make it fun. If it isn’t fun, kids aren’t going to do it.”

To find out more about the club, check out the Medford Aquafins Facebook page, which also has a link to the team’s webpage. The club is planning on once again having a non-competitive summer season where fundamentals are taught to prepare swimmers for the winter season.

“Swimming is unique where when we compete with NLAC, we get to know swimmers from these other schools,” Sperl said. “The swimmers build relationships with swimmers from all around the area. They’re there cheering each other on, supporting each other. Because it’s a timebased sport, it’s not a I have to beat you. It’s literally I compete against myself and then the clock tells us who won. There’s a friendly competitiveness amongst the competitors and you see these kids develop friendships all across these schools.”