MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING PREVIEW - Swimmers bring back a core of five, could still add some depth

MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING PREVIEW

Five returning letter winners are back in the pool for Medford’s 2024-25 boys swim team, giving the Raiders a little bit of a head start to last year in terms of experience.

The team is also breaking in some new swimmers and is hoping to add more in the next couple of weeks.

The Raiders are two-plus weeks and two meets into their new season under third-year head coach Terry Werner and are once again in the mode of striving for as much individual improvement as possible. They’ll see where that improvement takes them once they hit the end of January and early February.

“We’ve had a strong start in practice,” Werner said Wednesday. “We started the season with seven boys. Now we’re up to eight potentially and we might have two more joining. We’re in the process of getting them on the team. So our numbers are not exactly established yet.”

Medford has set some of its starting points for the year, competing in the Nov. 26 Menomonie Relays and Tuesday’s Great Northern Conference opener at perennial power Rhinelander.

The Raiders pieced together relays at Menomonie that took two fourths and a fifth. As expected, they were outscored soundly by Rhinelander Tuesday 13431, but Werner said it was a fun night as the guys set their first individual times of the new year.

“The Menomonie relay meet went really well,” Werner said. “That was a good experience for the boys. I feel like our 200-yard medley team and our 200-yard freestyle relay both did really well compared to last year’s times. I feel like we’re almost cutting time already in the first relay meet off of last year.

“Rhinelander was really fun (Tuesday) night,” he added. “Of course that’s the monster of our conference. It was a tough one for the outcome, but it was a good experience for the boys. For some, they swam their first individual events. Just being a pool like Rhinelander’s, it was their first time there and just experiencing a race was kind of a big deal.”

Medford returns its top two swimmers from a year ago in senior Mason Reimann and junior Logan Rouiller.

Rouiller finished third in the 500-yard freestyle during last year’s GNC meet that Medford hosted, giving him an honorable mention award. He had a personal-best time of 5:51.97 and took fourth in the 200yard freestyle at 2:11.38. He lowered his 200 time to 2:09.6 while placing 14th at the WIAA Division 2 Ashwabenon sectional.

He is likely to stay in those two events this year.

“Right away we’re working on conditioning for him,” Werner said. “He’s off to a pretty good start. If we make the same type of time cuts that we did last year with Logan, he should be pretty close to a state-qualifying time as long as we stay on track. We’d have to cut even more time off of last year and that’s not going to be easy.”

Reimann is certainly the team leader, both in performance and personality.

He figures to remain in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard butterfly. Of course, he and Rouiller will fill relay spots as well.

Reimann was fourth in the GNC in the medley last year at 2:27.03 and fourth in the butterfly at 1:07.89. He lowered his time at the sectional to 2:24.39 in the individual medley and to 1:06.35 in the butterfly, placing ninth and 11th respectively in those races.

“Mason is a swimmer who is really kind of a dream athlete to work with in the pool,” Werner said. “He comes and he gives it his all. He leaves it all out in the pool. When he gets done with a race, he’s spent. That’s all I can ask of anybody. It does show in his times and his performance.”

Junior Roger Mann is back for his third year with the team. He’s the team’s primary entrant in the 100-yard breaststroke. He finished seventh in the conference last year in that event. Junior Reece Travis returns for his second season and will likely continue a sprint role in events like the 50- and 100-yard freestyle, though Werner said they’ll look at adding to his plate. Werner said Travis is definitely a tick faster than he was at the end of last year. Senior Brandon Curtis found his role in the 100-yard backstroke and also got into the 200-yard freestyle Tuesday at Rhinelander. Senior Cale Schulz and junior Cullen Jones have taken their first dips into high school swim competition in the first two meets. Senior Jaiden Thao is looking to start swimming soon and Werner said two more seniors, Michael Meyer and Anthony Seidel, who are coming off good soccer seasons, were looking to join and add some athletic depth this week as well.

“We’ll just have to work on all the starts, the turns, the main things that get you disqualified,” Werner said. “That’s the number one thing with the new swimmers. We have to make sure we’re doing everything by the book.”

Once the new swimmers get up to speed, Werner said it will be interesting to see if the meet lineup shifts based on what strengths emerge, especially with the relays.

“Right now we’re trying to get that to work so we can field the best and fastest possible relays that we can,” Werner said.

Meet number three for Medford is tonight, Thursday, at Tomahawk. The home opener is set for next Thursday, Dec. 12 against Shawano-Seymour. Tomahawk, Shawano-Seymour and Antigo placed second, third and fourth in the conference last year behind Rhinelander. Lakeland, who did not compete last year because it could not find a coach, is back in the GNC this year and will be in Medford Dec. 19. The Raiders will host a double-dual with Rhinelander and Shawano-Seymour on Jan. 7. “I’m looking forward to our home meets,” Werner said. “We only have three home meets this year. We really have to pour everything into those. One will be Senior Night, one will be Parents Night. I wish we would’ve had more this year. It’s disappointing, but what can you do? That’s the schedule and that’s the way it works.”

Rhinelander will host this year’s GNC championships on Friday, Feb. 7. Medford will also be in Rhinelander again next Saturday for the Hodag Relay Invitational. The sectional meet is again in Ashwaubenon and is set for Saturday, Feb. 15.

There will be five dual meets that will count in the final GNC standings and those will be completed by the end of December. GNC teams will fill their schedules with a series of double-duals in January,