Tridents earn personal bests for third at conference meet
The Lake Holcombe-Ladysmith-Flambeau-Bruce Trident Swimmers competed Nov. 1, at the Great Northern Conference Championship meet, hosted by Medford at the UWStevens Point Natatorium. At the end of the night, the Tridents claimed many personal best swims, podium spots and finished third in the eight-team conference.
In the 200-yard medley relay, Madeline Bunton, Brooke Lechleitner, Lacey Fuse and Megan Lechleitner, finished in third, with a time of 2:00.19, while their teammates Kylee Millin, Mya Baselt, Olivia Bunton and Sadie Heath, swam a time of 2:09.62 to claim sixth.
After swimming a personal best breaststroke split in the medley relay, Baselt went on to place fifth in the 200-yard freestyle, with a time drop of 3.02 seconds and a new personal best of 2:13.64.
Heath and Millin each dropped times, as well, swimming 2:21.99 and 2:30.95, respectively. Next, in the 200yard individual medley, Fuse and O. Bunton swam personal best times of 2:25.58 and 2:32.54, to take third and fourth place.
In the 50-yard freestyle, B. Lechleitner and M. Lechleitner swam well, taking second and fourth place, respectively.
The 100-yard butterfly saw Fuse and O. Bunton back in the pool, to take third and seventh places, with O. Bunton dropping two seconds, swimming a personal best time of 1:10.98.
B. Lechleitner swam to fifth place in the 100-yard freestyle, with a time of 57.82, while in the same event, seniors M. Lechleitner, still recovering from an ACL tear, claimed 11th place and Jenisa Parker dropped three seconds, to claim a new personal best of 1:05.96.
The 500-yard freestyle featured freshman M. Bunton, who claimed first with a time of 5:41.83, while her fellow freshman teammates Sanaa Trott and Heath each swam personal best times, to take ninth and 10th places, respectively.
Next up, the relay team of B. Lechleitner, Baselt, M. Lechleitner and Fuse, claimed third place, with a time of 1:46.71.
Also claiming points in the event, was the relay team of Trott, Michelle Gaddy, Parker and Kyra Wright, with a time of 2:02.96. In a very fast 100-yard backstroke race, M. Bunton grabbed sixth, with a time of 1:08.42, while senior Wright dropped over four seconds to swim a new personal best.
Baselt was back in the pool in the 100-yard breaststroke, dropping nearly two seconds, for a new personal best time of 1:16.82 and fourth place. The final event of the night, was the 4x100-yard freestyle relay, where the Trident A-relay team finished in sixth, with the B-relay team claimed 11th.
With the final scores tabulated, the Tridents had amassed 226 points and had a firm grip on third place overall.
“I was very pleased with how our girls swam tonight,” said coach Matt Bunton. “We saw personal best times in nearly all swims by our first year swimmers, including Macy Kennedy, Caitlyn Kolter, Lizzy Nelson, Izzy Mitchell and Kyra Wright.
“In addition, many of our veteran swimmers including Jade Hengst, Kitara Fye, Jenisa Parker and Rhiannon Peavey, swam personal bests as well. Our girls that will be competing this coming week at Sectionals, are right where they should be with another week of taper and polishing ahead of them.”
The Tridents move on to the Sectional meet, hosted by Wisconsin Rapids, Nov. 8-9. Fye will dive Friday night, with the swimmers taking to the pool Saturday afternoon.
“You can’t help but be proud of this group of exceptional student athletes and how well they represent our four small communities,” said Matt Bunton.
