Tridents take third place at conference championship
The Lake Holcombe-Ladysmith-Flambeau-Bruce-Bloomer Trident Swim and Dive team competed at Colby, then at the conference championship meet over the past couple weeks.
Oct. 14 vs. (W 117-54)
The Tridents opened the Colby-Abby meet with first and second place finishes in the 200-yard medley relay. In the next event, freshmen Lauren Hanson dropped a few more seconds in her 200-yard freestyle, to take second behind teammate junior Madeline Bunton.
In the 200-yard individual medley, sophomore Madilyn Kempen continues to show improvement, dropping 2 seconds and taking first place in the event. The 50-yard freestyle featured senior Brooke Lechleitner finishing in first, with a time of 25.28 seconds, followed by junior teammates Sadie Heath and Sanaa Trott taking third and fourth places.
Also in the 50-yard freestyle, freshman Alaina Meskill swam a personal best, in the JV heat, taking first place. In the 100-yard butterfly, Lechleitner and freshman Sarah Allard teamed up to take first and second place, with season best times from both.
In the 500-yard freestyle, Bunton finished first, with a time of 5:39.11, with teammates Hanson and freshman Kayleen Powell taking second and fourth places. The Tridents finished off the remainder of the meet, taking first places in the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays, 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard breastroke.
The Tridents finished the meet with a score of 117-54 over the Colby-Abby team.
Oct. 22 vs. Conference Meet
The conference championship meet was hosted by Rhinelander this year. Notable podium finishes for the Trident team included a third place in the 200 medley relay by Bunton, Gaddy, Kempen and Lechleitner, with a time of 2:02.11.
Bunton took third place in the 200 freestyle, with a time of 2:04.62, and third in the 500 freestyle, hitting the wall in 5:32.65. Kempen took fifth in the 200 individual medley, with a personal best time of 2:34.55.
Kempen then claimed the fourth place finish in the 100 butterfly, with another personal best time of 1:06.02. Lechleitner placed fourth in the 50 freestyle and fifth in the 100 freestyle races, with times of 25.11 and 55.56, respectively.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Kempen, Trott, Allard and Heath finished in sixth place, with a time of 1:57.72. Finally, the relay team of Lechleitner, Gaddy, Heath and Bunton took third in the 400 freestyle.
Coach Matt Bunton says the conference meet featured some extremely fast swims by the Rhinelander Hodags and Lakeland teams, with many conference records broken, “Our girls are ready to start tapering,” said Matt. “With the grueling workouts behind them, it’s time to really focus on polishing up our strokes, swimming fast, resting up and getting ready to post some great times at the Sectional meet in a few weeks.
The Tridents’ season record moved to 6-2 with the win over Colby-Abby, finishing the Great Northern Conference Championship in third place.
“As a coach, I’m very happy with where we are at as a team and being able to take third overall in a very competitive conference,” said “Our girls do a great job of representing the Bloomer, Bruce, Flambeau, Ladysmith and Lake Holcombe schools, and communities.”
