Swim meet with Mosinee goes down to the wire

The Abbotsford/Colby swim co-op nearly pulled off an improbable upset on Thursday night. A small team to begin with, contact tracing left Abby/Colby with only six swimmers to compete against the Mosinee Indians in a Great Northern home dual.

The outcome of the meet would go down to the wire, and would not be decided until the final race, but in the end, Mosinee’s superior numbers proved just enough to give the visitors a 79-75 victory.

The Abby/Colby swimmers stayed in the meet thanks to victory in six of the meet’s 11 races, with only the dive portion omitted from Thursday’s event.

The co-op scored the first points off a second place showing in the 200-yard medley relay. Olivia Johnson, Hailey Meyer, Lilly Graun and Ivee Conley did the damage, finishing in a time of 2:39.35.

Conley and Johnson picked up points in the 200-yard freestyle. Conley was third in 2:56.10, and Johnson was fourth with her time of 2:56.17.

Olivia Krause won the co-op’s first event when she captured the 200-yard IM in 2:57.30. Another victory for Abby/ Colby quickly followed, with Hailey Meyer winning the 50-yard freestyle in 31.51. Graun placed third in the 50-yard freestyle in 32.89 seconds.

Olivia Krause continued to pick up points for the co-op. Her time of 1:23.75 in the 100-yard butterfly earned Krause second place and the co-op four points.

Abby/Colby went one-two in the next event, the 100-yard freestyle. Freshman Chloe Cihlar dominated the competition, winning the race by nearly ten seconds in 1:01.38. Zanza Haemer came in second in 1:10.43.

Conley and Olivia Johnson would go second and third in the 500-yard freestyle in 7:47.68 and 7:50.30 for four and three points for the co-op.

Abby/Colby won its fourth race when the Haemer, Cihlar, Graun and Krause won the 200-yard freestyle in 2:02.10, a full 15 seconds ahead of Mosinee. But Mosinee was able to field two teams in the event, and earned six points, keeping them in the hunt for the meet.

Abby/Colby swept the top two spots in the 100-yard backstroke as Cihlar won her third event of the night in a time of 1:13.02, ten seconds ahead of Haemer’s second place time of 1:23.10.

Hailey Meyer took second in the 100yard breaststroke in 1:37.08. The co-op won its final race in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Krause, Haemer, Graun and Cihlar prevailed for first in their time of 4:42.08.

The co-op will hope to be back at full strength this week for their Great Northern home dual with rivals Lakeland on Thursday. The meet begins at 5:30 p.m.