TWO OF THREE MAKE THE CUT - Medford nearly sends all relays to state

TWO OF THREE MAKE THE CUT

All season long the Medford Raiders knew they had the talent to create statecaliber relay teams. They just didn't know which ones would eventually make it to Friday's WIAA Division 2 girls swimming state championships.

As it turned out after all the sectional results from around the state were posted Saturday evening, the 200-yard freestyle relay they felt certain would qualify was in, the 200-yard medley team they felt had a good shot just missed and the 400yard freestyle relay was the surprise of the day, earning the last spot in Friday's state field of 16 teams.

The relay results were just some of the highlights of a successful sectional outing for the Raiders, who took third out of 14 teams in the meet held at Menomonie High School.

Five girls make up the two relay squads that will compete in Friday's state meet, which starts at 5:30 p.m. at Waukesha South. For four of them, it will be their first experience actually competing in the meet. Senior Sydney Sperl is making her third consecutive trip after qualifying the past two years in the 200-yard individual medley.

“I’m glad we got relays there my senior year because they're a lot more fun than individual events,' Sperl said before the team's Tuesday practice. “I’m excited that it's just not me going alone or just me with another person. It was fun because (teammates) still got to come but when it's just you on the pool deck, it’s nerve wracking.”

Junior Layla Petersen, Sperl, junior Chiara D'Arienzo and sophomore Kodi Rappe swam to a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay in Saturday's meet, posting a time of 1:44.67 that ranks 11th among the 16 teams that will compete for the state title on Friday.

Rappe, Sperl, senior Chelsea Gebauer and D'Arienzo got the 16th and final spot in the state field with their fourth-place sectional time of 3:56.17.

“It was kind of a shock at first, but I’m excited,” Petersen said of qualifying for state for the first time.

“I’m really excited,” Rappe said. “It makes me feel really good.”

“I’m excited that we made it for my senior year and that my senior year will end at state,” Gebauer said.

For D'Arienzo, Medford’s foreign exchange student from Italy, the state trip will cap a unique experience that she's had with the team this fall.

“To be here I’m glad to be doing this with all of these girls,” she said. “I feel very excited and I feel ready.”

Unlike other WIAA individual sports, state swim spots aren’t just determined at one sectional meet. Sectional champions in each event automatically qualify. But after that, the top 12 non-winning times in each event from all four Division 2 sectionals get the remaining spots. So those swimmers who are near the top but didn’t win their events have to sweat out waiting for the results of all the meets to come in to see if they’re in.

Medford’s girls had gone their separate ways after the meet, but were in touch as they waited for all the results.

“I saw that all the sectional results were out, but I was too scared, so I texted Sydney and was like ‘you’ve gotta look through these and tell me. You gotta be the one to tell me,’” Petersen said. “I eventually looked through it because she took too long to answer me.”

Sperl said she was shopping and eating dinner in Eau Claire when she was going through the statewide results.

“We kinda knew coming into the season that our relays had a really good chance,” Sperl said. “Definitely out of my four years, this was known to be the year that we were going to have the best chance.”

The 200 freestyle team’s time put it 4.09 seconds behind Rhinelander in Saturday’s race. The Hodags won in 1:40.58. Wittenberg-Birnamwood gave Rhinelander a heck of a push before falling 0.11 seconds short. Medford beat Antigo by 0.74 seconds for third, but the Red Robins also advanced to state as did fifthplace Colby-Abbotsford with its time of 1:46.86. The Hornets got the 16th spot.

“It went really well,” Rappe said of that race.

“Our splits were all really good,” Sperl said. “We all swam some of our best times.”

“I was surprised by that,” Petersen said. “In the water, I don’t think you ever feel like you’re as fast as you are.”

The surprise for that group was that they nearly broke the 2014 school record of 1:44.13 set by the 2014 group of Alyssa Loertscher, Mara Schumacher, Paige Olson and Abbie Bergman.

“I think we were all really confident that we were going to make it,” Sperl said. “We found out later we were only about 0.5 seconds away from the school record, which is crazy.”

The girls added the school record was something they weren’t even thinking about. Now that is their goal for the race on Friday.

“We might not win it, but if we can come back with a new school record, I think that'd be fantastic,” assistant coach OraLee Dittrich said.

Medford’s time was easily the best a Raider foursome has had all year. This four in particular had swam a 1:47.81 against Colby-Abbotsford on Oct. 3.

The 400-yard freestyle relay group posted the Raiders’ first sub-four minute time of the season. However, 3:56.17 is a time they were not particularly happy with and are certain they’ll do better on Friday.

“Chelsea swam the event before (the 100-yard breaststroke), so she was exhausted,” Sperl said. “I think all of us, we got out of the pool and we were just like ‘wow, I died at the end.’ We should drop a lot of time in that.”

“I was really tired,” Gebauer said. “I definitely am able to drop at least five seconds I’d say. Just being the last event, everybody was already tired.”

“We were not confident in making it in that one,” Rappe said.

Medford finished fourth in the race, trailing its Great Northern Conference rivals Rhinelander (3:41.12), Antigo (3:53.16) and Lakeland (3:53.06). The Raiders were well ahead of fifth-place Wausau East (4:01.25).

The unfortunate surprise was the 200yard medley relay team of D'Arienzo, Gebauer, Petersen and Rappe fell just short. The Raiders’ fifth-place time of 1:57.5, a season-best by 1.82 seconds, left them 0.05 seconds behind fourth-place Merrill, who wound up getting the 16th seed in the state field.

“That was the one we thought had the highest chance of going,” assistant coach Mandy Haenel said.

Rhinelander won the race in 1:48.7, followed by Wittenberg-Birnamwood (1:51.25) and Lakeland (1:57.37).

At state, Whitefish Bay has the top seeded team in both the 200- and 400yard freestyle relays at 1:39.19 and 3:32.75. Rhinelander, last year's state champion in all three relays, is seeded third in the 200 and second in the 400. Rhinelander is also the defending Division 2 team champion, but Whitefish Bay and Madison Edgewood ended the regular season as the top two ranked Division 2 teams in the state ahead of the Hodags.

“I think break the record (in the 200),” Sperl said of the team’s state goals. “And not get last (in the 400), which I don’t think we will because we’ll drop time.”

More sectional results

As is always hoped with the tapering process swim teams go through at the end of the season, the Raiders put together several season-best times Saturday while scoring 216.5 points. Only Rhinelander (413.5) and Wittenberg-Birnamwood (232) scored more. “ Eve rybody dropped significant time,” head coach Sam Klinner said. “There were a lot of personal bests. It was cool.” Medford had three top-five individual finishes. Two of them came in the 500-yard freestyle. D'Arienzo was third in 5:42.69, while junior Adalyn Dittrich was fourth in a personal-best 5:45.52. She beat her season-best time by nearly five seconds. Only the meet champion, Olivia Pajtash of Merrill, advanced to state with her time of 5:34.95.

“I dropped 10 seconds in the 500. I think that was good,” D’Arienzo said. “I tried the 500 only three times, but I think now it’s really my event. I like it. I was happy Saturday.”

Sperl tied Antigo’s Chloe Tainter for fifth in the 100-yard freestyle with her time of 57.94 seconds that was easily her season-best. Freshman Tori Nicks, who had swam the 100 freestyle once this season, improved on that time by nearly seven seconds while placing 12th in 1:00.92. Senior Cadance Haenel was 17th in 1:03.69, lowering her personal-best time by 1.82 seconds. Senior Mackenzie Petersen was 20th in 1:04.64.

Sperl added her best time of the fall in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:26.69. She placed seventh. All six swimmers ahead of her qualified for state. Colby-Abbotsford’s Madisyn Schraufnagel was sixth in 2:18.4. Rhinelander’s Celia Francis won in 2:09.25. Layla Petersen was 11th in a personal-best 2:36.04. Layla Petersen also took eighth in the 100-yard butterfly in a personal-best 1:07.38, dropping 0.92 seconds from her previous best of the season. “I was happy I dropped it to a 1:07,” Petersen said. Senior Tana Rappe cut nearly two seconds from her GNC time and placed eighth in the 200-yard freestyle at 2:14.64, just ahead of teammate Mackenzie Petersen’s 2:15.98, which was just off her seasonbest.

Gebauer was eighth in that 100-yard breaststroke she competed in right before the 400 freestyle relay. Her time was 1:18.25. Only three swimmers advanced in that event.

Kodi Rappe led a trio of Raiders in the 50-yard freestyle with her time of 26.66 seconds, a personal best by 0.1 seconds. Gebauer was 11th in 27.51 seconds and Haenel took 16th in a personal-best 28.29 seconds.

Dittrich was 15th in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:10.24, sophomore Jayda Fryklund was 16th at a personal-best 1:10.75 and Tana Rappe took 20th in 1:13.78, another new personal record.

“I was proud of us,” Layla Petersen said. “I feel like everyone dropped times. I think we’re all happy with how we placed.”

“They did awesome,” Mandy Haenel said. “They showed up to swim.”

“They were rocking it,” Klinner said.

Medford senior Chelsea Gebauer sprints through her leg of the Raiders' statequalifying performance in the 400-yard freestyle relay to end Saturday's sectional. The team of Kodi Rappe, Sydney Sperl, Gebauer and Chiara D'Arienzo placed fourth in 3:56.17 and got the last state-qualifying spot in the event. JEREMY MAYO/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS

Medford’s Sydney Sperl, pictured during the butterfly leg of the 200-yard individual medley placed seventh in the event Saturday in 2:26.69. Sperl is a member of both of Medford’s statebound relay teams.

Medford’s Layla Petersen, pictured during her breaststroke leg of the 200-yard individual medley, finished 11th in the event in her best time of the fall, 2:36.04. Petersen is part of Medford’s statebound 200-yard freestyle relay. PHOTOS BY JEREMY MAYO/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS

Tana Rappe