Tridents make a splash in week’s highlight reel
By Ginna Young
The Lake Holcombe-Ladysmith-Flambeau-Bruce-Bloomer Trident Swim team spent the week on the road, traveling to Medford, then making the trip to Superior, two days later, for the annual Spartan Relays Invitational.
Sept. 9 at Medford (L 109-61)
The girls gave it their all, according to coach Matt Bunton, but came up short in the away meet. Depsite that, the Tridents ended with a few highlights.
In the 200-yard medley relay, freshman Kayleen Powell dropped 7 seconds in her breaststroke leg, while fellow freshmen teammates Alyxandria Lunemann dropped 2 seconds in the butterfly leg and Lauren Hanson posted a 31.8 second freestyle leg.
Later, in the 500-yard freestyle, freshman Sarah Allard took first place, with a time of 6:39.55.
“Our four freshmen swimmers have been working very hard this season and have come a long way,” said Bunton. “Each is maturing as a swimmer and competitor, and are playing important roles on our team.”
Sophomore Madilyn Kempen posted a “great swim” in the 100-yard butterfly, with a time of 1:10.24, matching her best time from last season.
“Madi had a great fly swim and is really getting the reach, kick and timing down,” said Bunton. “We are all excited to see where that swim is at the end of the season.”
Other highlights from Medford, included juniors Sadie Heath and Michelle Gaddy breaking 29 seconds on their 50 freestyle races for the first time. Heath later went on to earn first place, with a finish in the 100-yard freestyle race, with a time of 1:04.65.
“There is still room for improvement, and I know they will continue to work on the form and fitness to realize success,” said Bunton.
Sept. 11 Superior Invitational
The Spartan Relays, hosted by the Superior High School swim team, is an annual favorite with teams from Northwestern Wisconsin, Duluth and several other Minnesota teams. The Tridents made three big splashes at the meet.
The first was the relay team of Kempen, junior Sanaa Trott, Lunemann and junior Madeline Bunton taking second place in the 4x50 butterfly race, with a time of 2:06.87. In the very next race, the team of Gaddy, Trott, Kempen and Madeline, came together to take first place in the Crescendo freestyle relay (100, 100, 200 and 500), with Maddy Bunton coming from behind in the final 500, to hit the wall 6 seconds in front of her nearest competitor from the Proctor-Hermantown team.
Finally, the 3x100 breaststroke featured Gaddy, Trott and Kempen taking the third place finish with a time of 4:10.42.
“We had some very good swims and I’m very proud of how the girls performed today,” said Matt. “It was great seeing some teams that we otherwise never swim against.”
