MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING - GETTING NOTICEABLY BETTER

MEDFORD BOYS SWIMMING

Reaching the midway point of their season at the holiday break, the Medford swim team continued to make some significant strides Thursday in a 103-56 home loss to Menomonie.

The Mustangs weren’t going to lose the meet being considerably deeper than the Raiders, but Medford did win a season-high three events in the nonconference meet and there were some notable time drops as well.

“Every meet we’re cutting times,” Medford head coach Terry Werner said after the meet. “I think tonight there were a few races where we didn’t exactly cut times, but they were close races and we won a few of them. It was exciting how close some of those races were. We really match up well against Menomonie, even though they’re a bigger team.”

Mason Reimann collected the first win in the meet’s third race, the 200yard individual medley. He led right from the start and kept pulling away from Menomonie’s Ryan Rood (2:47.2) and William McKnight (3:24.82) to win in 2:31.07. Reimann later added a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:10.38, trailing the Mustangs’ Gavin Hall (1:03.41) and beating Eirik Erickson (1:22.11).

Logan Rouiller was the next winner, continuing to improve in his top event, the 500-yard freestyle. He finished in 6:05.15, comfortably ahead of the Mustangs’ Thomas Seim (6:17.75), Rood (6:28.09) and Peyton Gregerson (7:25.94). Rouiller also placed second in the 200yard freestyle in 2:16.33. Menomonie’s Connor Klimek won in 2:07.87. Raider Rhys Buskerud was fifth in 3:02, dropping 11.49 seconds from his last meet Dec. 12.

Rouiller crept closer to his six-minute goal in the 500.

“We’re pushing him hard,” Werner said. “That’s our goal. He shaved a little bit more off. Now it’s down to 6:05, down from a 6:08, so he cut three more seconds. Now it’s just a question of when that will happen.” Roger Mann picked up his first win of the winter in the 100-yard breaststroke, holding off two Mustangs with his time of 1:25.49, which was just off his seasonbest. Luke Ray was 0.74 seconds behind Mann and Nolen Ayres was 1.9 seconds behind. Earlier in the meet, Mann was third in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:08.42, while Raider Reese Travis was fifth in 1:18.02. Klimek won in 55.77 seconds.

“All of our returning swimmers won first place in an event, so you can’t ask for more there,” Werner said.

Big improvements were made by Medford in the 100-yard backstroke. Dawson Gasek was second in 1:30.86, knocking off nearly 17 seconds from his previous personal-best. Brandon Curtis chopped 4.96 seconds and took third.

In the 50-yard freestyle Travis was second in 32.76 seconds, beating Mustang Ian Conklin by 0.74 seconds, Gasek was fourth in an improved 35.12 seconds and Curtis was sixth in an improved 39.26 seconds.

Not only are the times down, but the technique has improved noticeably in the last month for what was a pretty green crew at the start of the season when it comes to competitive swimming.

“The flip turns were noticeable,” Werner said. “Against this team, a lot of their guys were doing open turns on freestyle. Our boys were all doing their flip turns, so that was impressive. Our starts are better. I think that’s a big deal. The relay exchanges are tighter. They’re right on the button. They’re moving before they get in, just like they should.”

The meet ended with Curtis, Travis, Gasek and Rouiller beating Menomonie’s B team in a tight race for second in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Medford’s team finished in 5:20.49, 1.18 seconds ahead of the B team and a nearly 16-second drop for this particular quartet. The Mustangs’ A team won in 3:57.73.

Reimann, Buskerud, Mann and Travis were second in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 2:06.77, another season-best time. They were 6.86 seconds behind Menomonie’s top team and 24.8 seconds ahead of its B team. Mann, Buskerud, Reimann and Rouiller were second in the 200-yard medley relay at 2:25.87. Menomonie won in 2:04.04.

Medford heads to Rhinelander Jan. 4 for a double-dual with the Hodags and Shawano-Seymour that starts at 5:30 p.m.