Co-op swim team starts season with home pentathlon
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Colby/Abbotsford swim team got their season underway last Wednesday when they hosted a multi-team pentathlon. They also competed in a relay meet in Merrill the next day, where they took fifth out of 12 schools.
The pentathlon functions differently than most meets, inviting all swimmers to take part in all five events, which include 50-yard versions of the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle as well as a 100-yard IM.
Chloe Cihlar took sixth in overall time among senior swimmers, posting a combined time of 3:28.93 in all five events, putting her just behind the Ladysmith/Bruce/ Flambeau Tridents’ Sarah Allard, who had a combined time of 3:28.40. She had the third fastest time among seniors in the freestyle, putting up a time of 28.11 seconds, and the third quickest backstroke race with a time of 33.27 seconds. Fellow senior McKinley Meyer didn’t qualify for the combined times, but posted times of 40.07 seconds in the butterfly, 53.96 seconds in the breaststroke and 33.90 in the freestyle.
Madisyn Schraufnagel had the second best combined time of all juniors, clocking in at 3:08.23. Her time of 30.28 seconds in the backstroke topped everyone in her age group and she took second for all juniors in the breaststroke and the IM, putting up times of 34.91 seconds and 1:06.05 in the two events. Brezlyn Boyer took sixth among juniors with a combined time of 3:20.76. Her highest finish came in the freestyle, where she took with a time of 27.67 seconds. Jordan Jakel took ninth among junior swimmers, posting a time of 3:28.96. Her best event was the butterfly, where she finished sixth with a time of 30.75 seconds.
Among sophomores, Bryleigh Boyer took 11th with a time of 3:41.15 and earned 10th in the butterfly and the breaststroke, posting times of 33.27 seconds and 40.02 seconds in the two events respectively. Kate Sheahan had the seventh best time for freshman, posting a combined effort of 4:01.05. Her best finish came in the butterfly, where she took fifth with a time of 36.81 seconds.
In Merrill, the team collected 218 points in the nine event relay meet, earning them-
See PENTATHLON/ Page 10
STARTING THE YEAR STRONG - Senior McKinley Meyer kicks off her 2024 swim season with the 50-yard butterfly at the Colby/Abby hosted pentathlon held last Wednesday.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Pentathlon
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selves fifth place overall. Stevens Point dominated the meet, winning seven of the events and collecting 346 points.
Colby/Abby’s best finish came in the final competition of the evening. The relay of Cihlar, Jakel, Schraufnagel and Brezlyn Boyer took second in the 400-yard freestyle, taking 11 seconds off their seed time by completing the race in 4:10.03.
The 200-yard backstroke relay team of Cihlar, Sheahan, Ella Baumann and Brezlyn Boyer had the next best finish for the co-op. The quartet took fourth in their event, finishing with a time of 2:16.51.
The Colby/Abby squad also took sixth in three different events, with the relay of Jakel, Schraufnagel, Cihlar and Brezlyn Boyer doing so in the 200-yard Medley with a time of 2:08.62, Jakel, Meyer, Baumann and Cihlar picking up the spot in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:53.25, and Jakel, Schraufnagel, Sheahan and Bryleigh Boyer grabbing a sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:38.16.
