Co-op swim edges out Tomahawk, bested by Hodags

The Colby/Abbotsford swim team had their second conference meet of the season last Thursday, facing off against Rhinelander and the hosting Tomahawk squad. The co-op split the double dual meet, falling to Rhinelander but defeating the Hatchets in a closely contested battle.

The Hodags demonstrated why they have dominated the Great Northern Conference in recent memory, completely controlling both of their dual competitions. Rhinelander swimmers not only won each of the 11 events in Tomahawk, but also had their swimmers also take second place in seven races. This resulted in the Hodags cruising to a 128-38 win over Tomahawk and a 12643 victory over Colby/Abbotsford and had both teams instead in a heated battle between each other. Colby/Abby narrowly came out on top, thanks in part to four second place finishes, defeating the Hatchets 82-74.

The co-op held an early advantage over Tomahawk, partially due to Colby/Abby swimmers topping the Hatchets in the first six events. However, their GNC foes kept things close with their depth in several events and pulled out the top two spots in the head-to-head against Colby/Abby in the 500-yard freestyle and the fastest time between the two teams in the 200-yard freestyle relay. However, Colby/Abby was able to dominate the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard breaststroke, allowing them enough of a cushion to take home the victory.

Madisyn Schraufnagel captured two individual second place finishes while Brezlyn Boyer and Jordan Jakel both registered one each.

Schraufnagel’s performance in the 100yard breaststroke was the closest Colby/ Abby came to claiming the first place spot in Tomahawk. The senior battled Rhinelander’s Camilla Gruett and came in just behind her opponent, finishing with a time of 1:19.58, exactly one second behind Gruett. The co-op held a major advantage over Tomahawk in the event, as fifth place finisher Sage Lueth and sixth place finisher Hailey Huther gave the Colby/Abby the depth that the Hatchets’ lacked in the event, as they were only able to field fourth-place finisher Aubrey Tollefson. Lueth finished with a time of 1:28.17 while Huther had a time of 1:37.00.

Boyer’s second place finish in the 100yard backstroke also came at a key time for the co-op. Putting up a time of 1:10.81, Boyer was able to beat Tomahawk’s only swimmer in the race, Kaylee Roberts, by five seconds, earning Colby/Abby the top points in their head-to-head against the Hatchets. Kate Sheahan finished in sixth with a time of 1:31.29 in the event to give the co-op some additional points down the stretch.

Jakel and Schraufnagel had back-to-back second place finishes earlier in the meet. Jakel earned hers in the 100-yard butterfly, where she came back in the second leg of the race to defeat Rhinelander’s Lola Beach by two-tenths of a second, registering a time of 1:12.78. Schraufnagel led the co-op in the 100-yard freestyle, grabbing the runner up position with a time of 1:02.90. Ella Baumann took seventh in the event with a time of 1:09.28 and Camilla Meraz placed ninth with a time of 1:36.59.

Jakel also had an individual third place finish in the 50-yard freestyle, topping Tomahawk’s top swimmer in the event, Elizabeth Long, with a time of 28.83 seconds. Bryleigh Boyer had the co-op’s other individual top-three finish, picking up third in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:48.94. Hazel Flink took sixth with a time of 2:59.93 and Hailey Huther placed seventh with a time of 3:28.85.

The combination of Schraufnagel, Jakel and both Brezlyn and Bryleigh Boyer had the co-op’s top relay performance on Thursday, where they registered a third place finish in the 200-yard Medley with a time of 2:07.86. The relays of Schraufnagel, Huther, Baumann and Jakel as well as Sheahan, Baumann, and Brezlyn and Bryleigh Boyer both earned fourth place finishes, the former in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:01.88 and the later in the 400-yard freestyle with a time of 4:37.88.

Other top-five finishes included a fourth place spot for Brezlyn Boyer in the 200yard freestyle with a time of 2:16.84 and a fifth place finish for Bryleigh Boyer in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 7:03.31.

What’s Next?

The Colby/Abby squad will have a week off before they host Medford on Thursday, September 25. The two squads went second and third in the GNC last season, making the dual a potentially important one for the final conference standings. The meet will