C-A swim gets win in opening dual meet
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Colby-Abbotsford swim team picked up a win in their first conference dual meet of the season, defeating the Lakeland Thunderbirds on the road 95-63.
Last season, only two Lakeland swimmers made the trip from up north to Colby for their Great Northern conference matchup. This year, the Thunderbirds sported a team triple the size, now with seven athletes, which, while still perhaps not ideal, certainly made this year’s matchup a bit more competitive.
Lakeland opened the meet with three straight event wins, taking the 200-yard medley relay, the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard IM.
Chloe Cihlar notched the co-op first victory in the 50-yard freestyle, defeating Lakeland’s Saylor Timmerman in the shortest race of the competition, putting up a time of 26.56 seconds to Timmerman’s 27.20 seconds.
Colby-Abby followed up Cihlar’s win in the 50-yard freestyle with three straight wins. Jordan Jakel posted a time of 1:13.17 in the 100yard butterfly to claim the top spot and Brezlyn Boyer took the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:02.13.
The 100-yard freestyle was an especially good event for the co-op, one in which they took the top three spots. Bryleigh Boyer took second behind her sister with a time 1:13.29 and McKinley Meyer picked up third with a time of 1:16.04.
The Colby-Abby squad then went on to get victories in four of the final five events. Madisyn Schraufnagel picked up a win in the 100-yard backstroke, posting a time of 1:07.42. Brezlyn Boyer won her second event of the afternoon by posting a time of 1:21.98 in the 100-yard breaststroke. Two relay teams, the 200-yard freestyle relay of Meyer, Olivia Krause, Sage Lueth and Bryleigh Boyer, and the 400-yard freestyle relay of Cihlar, Jakel, Schraufnagel and Brezlyn Boyer also came out on top, finishing with times of 2:16.65 and 4:13.35 respectively.
Schraufnagel picked up an additional second place finish for the co-op on Thursday in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:27.28. Jakel took third in the event with a time of 2:39.33.
Also adding third place finishes were Zeline Lintrup in the 50-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle, coming out with times of 28.31 seconds and 6:51.81 respectively, Krause in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100yard butterfly with times of 2:43.13 and 1:31.85, and Lueth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:35.12.
Colby-Abby will host Mosinee next, inviting their Great Northern conference foes for their first home dual of the season. Last year, the co-op came away with the 92-64 victory and they will once again be looking to come away with the victory.
