MEDFORD BOYS SWIM - Swimmers easily defeat short-handed T-Birds for second GNC win

MEDFORD BOYS SWIM

Depth wouldn’t have been considered an obvious strength of Medford’s boys swim team at the start of the season, but on Thursday the team found a second straight Great Northern Conference team it had a clear edge over when it defeated visiting Lakeland 81-43.

Carrying just four swimmers, the Thunderbirds had no chance of matching up with the Raiders, who went 2-3 in the single-dual portion of their GNC schedule. Medford won all three relays, earned victories in six of the eight individual events and posted several season-best times.

Mason Reimann, Logan Rouiller and Roger Mann each won twice.

Rouiller outlasted Lakeland’s Braelen Hesch in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing in 2:36.37. The time marked an 8.1-second improvement over his Dec. 12 medley time and gave him a 1.61-second margin of victory. Rouiller later swam unopposed in the 500-yard freestyle and still pushed himself to a season-best time of 6:03.68, 1.65 seconds faster than his previous best on Dec. 3.

Mann cut 1.38 seconds while winning the 100-yard freestyle in 1:04.48, 0.84 seconds ahead of Hesch. Cale Schulz was fourth for Medford at 1:11.12 and Anthony Seidel was fifth at 1:22.7. Mann later took the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:24.12, shaving 0.83 seconds off his previous best of the season. He won handily, beating Lakeland’s Hunter Guckenberg by 8.47 seconds. Brandon Curtis took third for Medford in 1:39.78, cutting 3.35 seconds off his time from a week earlier.

Reimann took a rare spot for him in the 50-yard freestyle and won it in 25.14 seconds, well ahead of Lakeland’s Silas Fetrow (28.26). Hudson Briggs got the third-place points at 29.75 seconds. Aiden Thao finished in 47.81 seconds. Reimann swam unopposed in the 100-yard butterfly and lowered his time to a personal-best 1:05.77.

Briggs (2:36.37) and Curtis (3:07.35) were second and third in the 200-yard freestyle behind Lakeland’s Garrison Jacques, who won in 2:27.83. Both Raiders had time drops of about two seconds. Schulz was third in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:32.61, trailing Jacques (1:16.45) and Fetrow (1:19.41).

Reese Travis, Mann, Hudson Briggs and Reimann teamed up to win the 200yard freestyle relay in 1:54.42, pulling away for a 3.23-second margin of victory over the T-Birds. Schulz, Seidel, Curtis and Thao got the two third-place points at 2:29.33.

Rouiller, Mann, Reimann and Travis lowered their time to a season-best 2:05.18 in the 200-yard medley relay and won by 10.52 seconds. Travis, Briggs, Schulz and Rouiller swam unopposed in the 400-yard freestyle and finished in 4:37.57, easily the best time of the winter so far by a Medford foursome.

After the holidays, the Raiders will have three double-dual meets with GNC opponents. The first is Jan. 7, which will be the team’s home finale for the season. Rhinelander and Shawano-Seymour will be in town for that meet, which starts at 5:30 p.m.