MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING - Swimmers glide past Colby-Abby 109-59

MEDFORD GIRLS SWIMMING

It’s the tough time of the high school swim season where the girls are putting in a lot of yards and building endurance ahead of their late-season tapering process and Medford head coach Sam Klinner said there was some crankiness in the MASH pool last week heading a Thursday showdown with Great Northern Conference co-leader Colby-Abbotsford.

The Raiders took their anger out on the Hornets in a 109-59 win that left both teams at 4-1 in the league standings and with Medford holding the upper hand in the race for second behind Rhinelander.

“There were several personal bests tonight,” Klinner said after the win. “We’re in that part of the season where it gets a little grueling so they’re a little tired building up for the future taper. So we’re not expecting really good times but we had a lot of girls breaking their personal records. That’s a really good sign, so I think as we build up and then taper down, we’re going to be faster, faster, faster.”

Many of those faster times came in the first half of the meet as Medford took control quickly.

Chiara D’Arienzo, Chelsea Gebauer, Layla Petersen and Kodi Rappe began the meet by posting the fastest time a Medford team has had this season in the 200-yard medley relay at 1:59.94. They needed it because Colby-Abbotsford’s top team was just 0.71 seconds behind. Adalyn Dittrich, Sophie Sperl, Sydney Sperl and Cadance Haenel were third for Medford in 2:04.01, giving the Raiders a quick 10-4 lead.

Senior Mackenzie Petersen got the first of her two personal bests in the meet by winning the 200-yard freestyle in 2:17.08, while freshman Tori Nicks was second in 2:20.06, easily her best time of the fall in that event. D’Arienzo shaved off a few hundredths while taking second in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:29.06, while Sydney Sperl was third in 2:34.34 and Jayda Fryklund was fourth at 2:43.67, 1.23 seconds faster than the one other time she’s swam the event this season.

Hornet Madisyn Schraufnagel won the medley in an impressive 2:22.74.

All three of Medford’s varsity entrants in the 50-yard freestyle set season-best times with Rappe taking second in 26.91 seconds, Layla Petersen taking third in 27.04 seconds and Sophie Sperl taking fourth in 28.49 seconds. Chloe Cihlar won for the visitors in 26.22 seconds.

After the Parents’ Night mid-meet break, D’Arienzo and Layla Petersen took the top two spots in a tight race to the finish in the 100-yard butterfly with times of 1:09.08 and 1:09.29. Colby-Abbotsford’s Jordan Jakel was right behind them at 1:09.88. The Raiders went one-two in the 100-yard freestyle as well with Rappe (1:00.41) and Gebauer (1:00.63), while Aliyah Galan was sixth in 1:13.71.

D’Arienzo, an exchange student from Italy, has certainly been a positive addition to Medford’s lineup.

“She gives 110% at every practice,” Klinner said. “Everything she does she puts effort into and it shows in her swimming. She should be more of an inspiration to the rest of the girls because she’s putting so much effort into it. We’re hoping that catches on.”

Medford scored 11 big points in the 500-yard freestyle, where junior Adalyn Dittrich pulled away from Cihlar, winning by 13.59 seconds in 5:54.1. Mackenzie Petersen was third at 6:18.46 and Fryklund got the two fourth-place points at 6:32.89.

“I thought that was (Dittrich’s) personal best and it wasn’t. She actually got her personal best at conference last year at 5:52,” assistant coach OraLee Dittrich said. “This was still her first time under six minutes this season. For her to do that tonight was fantastic. That was followed right up by Mackenzie Petersen, dropping time like crazy so that was fantastic to see.”

Petersen first swam the 500 on Sept. 12 and has dropped time in every meet but one since.

“She hates it, but she’s good at it and she just keeps getting better at it,” Klinner said. “We’ll just kinda keep her going at it. We have a couple of girls who we’re going to probably move around to other things.”

“We’re moving some girls around,” coach Dittrich said. “They may not necessarily like it, but they’re showing strength in what they do.”

Sophie Sperl won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:17.46, just ahead of Gebauer’s 1:18.93. Nicks, one of the swimmers trying a new event Thursday, was fifth at 1:27.1. Wins in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays sealed the deal.

In the 200, D’Arienzo, Sydney Sperl, Layla Petersen and Rappe won in 1:47.81, 3.29 seconds ahead of Colby-Abbotsford’s top team. Fryklund, Haenel, Mackenzie Petersen and Tana Rappe were third at 1:56.12. Dittrich, Haenel, Nicks and Gebauer took the 400 in 4:27.76, 10.73 seconds ahead of Colby-Abbotsford. Mackenzie Petersen, Autumn Venzke, Galan and Fryklund were third in 4:39.74.

Schraufnagel won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:05.59, beating Sydney Sperl (1:12.59), Dittrich (1:13.9) and Haenel (1:22.13), who were second, third and fourth.

Venzke (1:18.07) and Mata Decker (1:28.43) lowered their times in the JV 100-yard freestyle. Galan won the JV 50yard freestyle in 32.49 seconds, followed by Venzke in a season-best 33.46 seconds and Decker in a season-best 36.73 seconds.

“It was a good night overall,” OraLee Dittrich said. “I really thought it was going to be a closer meet. It was really nice to see the final score.”

Two dual meets remain in the GNC season, the first of which is today, Thursday, at the Ladysmith Co-op. Lakeland closes out the home portion of the 2024 schedule on Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m.

“Overall I think we’re doing really, really well,” Klinner said. “Our end goal is to be competitive with Rhinelander, if not better. We’re going to get there. We’ll be building up a little bit for one to two more weeks and then we’ll start to taper.”