Colby/Abby swim host pentathlon
Last Wednesday afternoon, the Colby/ Abbotsford swim team hosted a pentathlon event, inviting five other schools from around the area to participate. The co-op took third overall as a team at the event, with several athletes recording impressive individual efforts.
The pentathlon functions somewhat differently than a typical meet. There are five events total for the event; the 50-yard freestyle, the 50-yard backstroke, the 50-yard butterfly, the 50-yard breaststroke, and a 100-yard IM that combines all four of the previous strokes into a single event where each stroke is used over one length of the pool.
Some of these events, like the 100-yard IM, are not typically seen in most meets, but the main purpose of the pentathlon is to serve as a way for coaches to see their swimmers in several different events with a more competitive atmosphere.
Because of this, another thing that differs from a typical meet is the fact that each team can enter as many swimmers in each event as they would like. This gives athletes the opportunity to compete in events with strokes they may not typically be able to and allows coaches to make adjustments to their lineups if something new is discovered.
While this format certainly favors teams like Rhinelander and Merrill, who have more numbers, the hosting Colby/ Abbotsford team still took third in what could be seen as a preseason event of sorts. The Rhinelander Hodags dominated, racking up 375 points in the event. Second place Merrill accumulated a distant 133.5 points, with third place Colby/ Abby coming in with 123 points.
There were several notable individual results that came from the meet. Freshman Madisyn Schraufnagel finished first amongst all ninth-graders in four of the five events. Her time of 30.81 seconds in the backstroke was good for third overall, 34.27 seconds in the breaststroke placed her fourth overall, 28.96 seconds in the butterfly placed her second overall, and 1:06.49 gave her third in the IM event. She also posted a time of 27.70 seconds in the freestyle, which placed her third for freshmen and tenth overall. Her overall pentathlon time, which combines all five events, was also first for freshmen.
Fellow freshmen Jordan Jakel placed third for freshmen in the butterfly, with a time of 30.82 seconds, giving her 11th place overall in the event.
Sophomore Chloe Cihlar posted a time of 27.22 seconds in the freestyle, which made her the second fastest sophomore in the event and sixth overall. She also had a seventh place finish in the backstroke with a time of 32.20. The only sophomore to finish the event faster than Cihlar was Rhinelander’s Lily Thorsen, who finished in 31.75 seconds.
Freshman Brezlyn Boyer found herself hovering between tenth and 15th overall for most of the events. Her highest finishes came in the breaststroke, where she finished 10th overall with a time of 37.10 seconds and 12th overall in the backstroke, where she posted a time of 33.11 seconds.
Looking ahead, the co-op hosts Lakeland on Thursday for their normal home meet of the season. The start time for the event is 5:30 p.m. and it will be held in the Colby high school pool.
