Swim team takes on Rhinelander, Tomahawk

The Colby/Abbotsford swim team dueled both Rhinelander and Tomahawk over the past week. After losing a tight meet to Tomahawk at Colby last Thursday, the team couldn’t keep up with the Hodags in their home pool.

The co-op made the trip to Rhinelander to take on the Hodags for a conference dual on Tuesday afternoon. The home team proved to be just as good as advertised, defeating the visiting Colby/Abby team by a score of 12841.

Rhinelander won ten of the 11 events and even set a new pool record in the 500-yard freestyle, with Abishea Winnicki taking two seconds off a time that had stood since 1979 when she finished in an incredibly fast 5:11.38.

The Hodags had both numbers and talent, giving them both more opportunities for points and the ability to take numerous top spots. They took first and second place in seven of the events.

Madisyn Schraufnagel managed to grab a win for the co-op in the 100-yard butterfly. Her time of 1:07.30 was two seconds faster than any of her competitors. Schraufnagel also had a secondplace finish in the 100-yard backstroke, which she finished in 1:08.52.

Chloe Cihlar also had a top two finish. The sophomore took second place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:00.15. Cihlar narrowly missed out on another second-place finish in the 50yard freestyle, where her time of 26.69 was just beat out by Rhinelander’s Genna Fugle, who came in with a time of 26.58 Brezlyn Boyer rounded out the top two finishes for Colby-Abby. Her time of 1:23.04 in the 100-yard breaststroke earned her second place.

On paper, it looked like it was going to be a close meet. Going down the list of events, both the Colby/Abby and Tomahawk swim teams looked fairly evenly matched, with the results of even one or two races potentially being the difference makers. Once the meet began, these judgements were proven to be true, with both teams putting up competitive times. By the break after the first four varsity events, the two were tied at 28 points each. Over the final seven events, the Hatchets pulled out to a small lead and despite a late push from the co-op in the final event, Tomahawk claimed the victory, 80-75.

Colby/Abby won two of the first four events, but only took one of the final seven races. The number of entrants they had in some of these later events, as well as their ability for their top swimmers to place over Tomahawk’s second swimmers allowed them to remain close, but they did not have quite enough to overtake the visitors.

Jordan Jakel and Chloe Cihlar won individual events, with Jakel taking first in the 200-yard IM and Chilar claiming victory in the 50-yard freestyle. Jakel defeated fellow freshman Morgan Kretzschmar by just over six seconds, coming in with a final time of 2:38.88. Cihlar, meanwhile, far outpaced the field in the freestyle, her time of 26.26 almost four seconds faster than those of her closest opponents.

The 400-yard freestyle relay of Brezlyn Boyer, Hailey Meyer, Lilly Graun, and Jakel also took first. In the final event of the evening, the relay put up a time of 4:41.24 to take first in the event.

The co-op’s best chance to flip the script on Tomahawk came in the first event, the 200-yard medley relay, where the team of Madisyn Schraufnagel, Cihlar, Boyer, and Jakel had a chance to take first. The two top teams were neck and neck for most of the race, with the Colby/Abby relay maintaining a small lead in the beginning portions but slowly seceding that lead to Tomahawk C/A

as the race progressed. There was less than a second between the two when all was said and done, with the co-op’s relay’s time of 2:06.22 being beaten by Tomahawk’s 2:05.38.

Cihlar also had a close call in the 100-yard freestyle. She took second in the event with a time of 58.81, but was only five-tenths of a second slower than her opponent.

Other second place performances included Boyer in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:25.95, Schraufnagel in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke with times of 1:08.00 and 1:07.41 respectively, Meyer in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 7:39.19, and the relay of Schraufnagel, Boyer, Jakel, and Cihlar in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:52.56.

The co-op will wrap up its regular season next week Thursday, when they will travel to Ladysmith for their final conference dual of 2022. The start time for that meet is set for 5:30 p.m.