By Jed Buelow
Co-Editor, Sports, Nature Editor
Kylee Theiler set a new school record and several young swimmers turned in personal bests but it wasn’t quite enough as Lakeland broke the Lady Hatchet three-year winning streak in the Great Northern Conference.
The win was not by much, but when the T-bird 400 free relay tapped the finish line in 4:05.19 to win the final race of the evening they had accomplished something no other Great Northern Conference competitor had done in the past three years.
“We knew it would eventually come,” said Hatchet head coach Theresa L’Esperance after an impressive run that saw the Hatchets win the GNC the past five straight years while finishing in fourth place two years ago and third place as a team last season at the WIAA Division 2 State Championship. “It still was a difficult feeling to overcome.”
Not that the Hatchets didn’t swim a good meet against Lakeland. They lost by just 11 points and K. Theiler set a new school record in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 1:01:55. Molly Mott set another personal record in the 100 butterfly to win the 100 free in a time 59.11 and Joanna Phillips knocked three seconds off her 100 free to finish in third.
The coach said she was also impressed with Abby Jaecks performance in the 50 free and the fact Annie Begotka proved her power after swimming all four events in the second half of the meet including the 500 free.
The Hatchets also had an impressive day in the 200 free relay. The team of M. Mott, J. Phillip, Julianna Skubal and K. Theiler tapped the finish line in 1:4843 to win the race and Karlie Woodall, Savanah Ristau, Teegan Wenzel and A. Begotka finished in third place to make it a nice race for the Lady Hatchets.
Other top three finishers for the Hatchets were: 200 medley relay – Megan Miles, M. Mott, K. Theiler, Dallas Dosch, 2nd, 2:02.46; 200 free – J. Skubal, 3rd, 2:26.22; 500 free – A. Begotka, 2nd, 6:42.95; A. Jaecks, 3rd, 6:56.86; 100 back – M. Miles, 2nd, 1:09.41; 100 breast – K. Theiler, 1st, 1:12.62; 400 free relay – M. Miles, J. Skubal, Aly Carstensen, D. Dosch, 2nd, 4:33.19; Taya Johnson, A. Jaecks, T. Wenzel, A. Begotka, 3rd, 4:43.61.
The Lady Hatchets will look to start a new winning streak tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 26) when they host Medford as part of Homecoming week. The GNC tilt gets underway at Hatchet Pool starting at 5:30 p.m.