C-A swimmer moves on to state

Schraufnagel wins 100-yard backstroke to advance

A season best performance at the Division 2 sectional meet from Madisyn Schraufnagel propelled her to a firstplace finish and an automatic bid to the WIAA state championship meet. This was one of 18 personal bests that were set by members of the Colby-Abbotsford swim team in Merrill last Friday. The team placed ninth out of 14 teams in the sectional, their 123 points between conference rival Tomahawk’s 136 and Black River Falls co-op’s 108. Rhinelander dominated, scoring 337 points, which was nearly 100 more than second place Wausau East’s 241.

The Colby-Abbotsford team’s meet was highlighted by Schraufnagel’s win in the 100-yard backstroke. While the freshman had taken third in the event two weeks prior at the Great Northern conference meet, she came into the day with the fastest seeded time. The two athletes who had beaten her would be swimming in different events, so Schraufnagel found herself as the favorite coming into the event. The competition would still prove to be tough and a pace matching her conference performance would not have been good enough to advance.

It was a tight race over the first 50-yards, with the top five swimmers all within a second of each other. Schraufnagel found herself at the front of that pack, but only barely so, with Medford’s Aiden Denzer and Merrill’s Megan Miles just behind. Miles fell off in the second half of the race, making it a twoway battle for first between Schraufnagel and Denzer. The Colby-Abby freshman held off the senior from Medford, finishing four-tenths of a second before her opponent. Her final time of 1:03.77 was by far the fastest she had set in the event, taking a second-and-a-half off her seeded time of 1:05.30, which she had set at the conference meet.

She will be the first Colby-Abby swimmer to advance to the WIAA championships since 2010, when Morgan Huber competed in the 100-yard breaststroke. Even if Schraufnagel had not taken first, her time of 1:03.77 would have been good enough to place in the top 16 of Division 2 swimmers for the 100-yard backstroke, which would have allowed her to qualify for the state meet.

Schraufnagel also had another top 10 finish at the sectional meet, taking eighth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:06.01. She joined teammates Brezlyn Boyer, Jordan Jakel, and Chloe Cihlar in the 200-yard medley and the 200-yard freestyle relays. The relay teams finished sixth and seventh in the two events, coming in with times of 2:01.65 and 1:49.45 respectively.

Cihlar had the second highest finish for the co-op, coming in fifth in the 50-yard freestyle. The sophomore took four-tenths of a second off her seed time in the quick paced event, finishing with a time of 25.67. It was a time that was faster than all but one of the seed times, but all four athletes that placed in front of her also improved on their best times.

Rounding out the co-op’s top 10 finishes, Cihlar also took ninth in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 57.68.

Other top 20 finishes included Jakel in the 100-yard butterfly, where she took 12th with a time of 1:11.31, Boyer in the 100-yard breaststroke, where she took 15th with a time of 1:21.62, Olivia Krause in the 100-yard butterfly, where she took 18th with a time of 1:19.82, and the 400yard relay team of Krause, Lilly Graun, Rayna Hamus and Hailey Meyer, which took 11th with a time of 4:44.20.

Schraufnagel will travel to Waukesha on Friday, Nov. 11 to compete in the state finals. Denzer from Medford will be the only other swimmer from the Merrill sectional to advance with her, so she will be competing against a host of new faces. Currently, she is set to compete in the first heat of the 100-yard backstroke, which is to take place in the second half of the meet as the tenth of twelve events. The doors are to open at 4:30 p.m. for spectators, with the swimming timed finals to begin at 5:30 p.m.