C/A swim defeats small Lakeland team
To say that the swim meet held last Thursday in the Colby High School pool was a bit abnormal would perhaps be a slight understatement. The Colby/ Abby co-op took on the Lakeland swim team for their first conference duel of the season, though due to some unforeseen circumstances, the Thunderbirds could only field two of their athletes for the meet. Only events where Lakeland had swimmers were scored, though the visitors did not have any events where both swimmers participated, which often meant that, even if a Lakeland swimmer took first, Colby/Abby would still ultimately end up with more points for the event. The home team ultimately won the meet, earning 29 points to Lakeland’s 20.
The closest events came at the beginning and end of the meet. In the second event held, the 200-yard freestyle, Colby/Abby freshmen Jordan Jakel and Brezlyn Boyer went head to head as the only participants in the event. Boyer took a quick lead after the first lap, but Jakel slowly but surely made up ground as the pair reached the finish line. Jakel would barely edge out her teammate, with only three-tenths of a second separating the pair. Jakel posted a final time of 2:22.94 and Boyer finished in 2:23.15.
In the second to last event, freshman Madisyn Schraufnagel was neck and neck with Lakeland’s Olivia Mickle in the 100-yard breaststroke. Schraufnagel maintained her lead for most of the race, but Mickle was well within striking distance as the pair entered the last leg. Schraufnagel managed to hold off her opponent’s final charge and claimed first in the event with a time of 1:16.03, just under four-tenths of a second faster than Mickle. Olivia Krause finished third for the co-op with a time of 1:37.18. Schraufnagel also took first in the 100-yard butterfly, which was also a scored event, posting a time of 1:04.98.
The final event of the evening certainly had the most cheering associated with it, as two Colby/Abby relay teams went head to head in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The relay consisting of Jakel, Hailey Meyer, McKinley Meyer, and Lilly Graun got off to a fast start, taking an early lead. However, the opposing relay of Boyer, Hazel Flink, Rayna Hamus, and Chloe Cihlar made a comeback on the final leg of the race, swooping in to take the lead at the last second and posting a time of 5:04.69. The first relay finished with a time of 5:05.12.
In the other scored events, Krause took second in the 200-yard IM with a time of 3:08.93 and Flink took third in the event with a time of 3:22.31. Cihlar took second behind Lakeland’s Saylor Timmerman in the 100-yard backstroke, posting a time of 1:14.07.
This was the first time that the coop’s coaching staff could remember facing such a small team. The smallest team prior to Thursday’s meet that they could recall having faced had five swimmers, so this occurrence was particularly out of the ordinary.
The team’s next meet should be a more typical affair, as they host Mosinee this coming Thursday. The meet is to be held at the Colby High School pool and it is set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
