Colby-Abby swim falls to Medford, 101-69

After starting out their conference season 3-0 and adding another victory over Black River Falls, the Colby-Abby swim team was handed their first loss of the season last Thursday at the hands of the visiting Medford squad. The depth of the Raiders proved to be key, allowing them to pick up a 101-69 victory over the co-op.

The home team managed to hold their own in the early going, picking up two wins over the first four events and grabbing both second and third place in the two events that they did not take first in.

The relay team of Madisyn Schraufnagel, Brezlyn Boyer, Jordan Jakel and Chloe Cihlar grabbed a win for the co-op in the first event of the day, the 200-yard medley relay. Their time of 1:59.20 was enough to defeat Medford’s top team by two seconds.

Cihlar and Boyer then took second and third in the 200-yard freestyle, posting times of 2:13.06 and 2:18.70 respectively. Schraufnagel had Colby-Abby’s second victory of the day in the 200-yard IM, finishing in 2:21.43. In the final event before the break, Zeline Lintrup and Jakel took second and third in the 50-yard freestyle, putting up times of 28.39 and 29.41. The race was one of the closest of the afternoon, with only two-tenths of a second separating Lintrup from the event’s winner, Kodi Rappe.

Medford only had a four point lead coming out of the break, but the Raiders were able to take first and third in four straight events to put some distance between themselves and the Colby-Abby squad.

Schraufnagel and Boyer picked up two more wins for the co-op in the second half of the event with Schraufnagel winning the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.76 and Boyer taking the next event, the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:18.59. Medford’s team depth allowed them to take second and third in the two events, however, denying Colby-Abby a way back into the meet.

Jakel, Lintrup and Cihlar all picked up second place finishes as individuals in the back half of the competition. Jakel came back to narrowly defeat Medford’s Layla Peterson for the runner-up spot in the 100-yard butterfly. Her time of 1:10.68 was just two-tenths of a second faster than her opponent, using a strong second half of the race to pass up Peterson. Lintrup’s time of 1:03.37 in the 100-yard freestyle and Cihlar’s time of 6:14.80 in the 500-yard freestyle also earned them second place finishes.

Two final relay teams also came away with second place finishes. The 200-yard freestyle relay of Jakel, Lintrup and Bre- Co-op

zlyn and Bryleigh Boyer posted a time of 1:55.72 in the event and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Cihlar, Lintrup, Schraufnagel and Olivia Krause put up a time of 4:12.53.

While the co-op could not perhaps match the numbers of Medford, they still had an excellent evening, posting 22 new personal bests.

The loss puts Colby-Abby in a threeway tie for second with Medford and Ladysmith in the Great Northern Conference, all of which have earned six points and hold a 3-1 record within the conference. The co-op’s next meet will be a key one if they hope to keep pace with the other top squads, as they will travel to Tomahawk this Thursday to take on the 2-2 Hatchets. Last season, the two teams were very evenly matched, with Tomahawk narrowly defeating last year’s Colby-Abby squad 80-75. The start time of this season’s rematch in Tomahawk is set for 5:30 p.m.