Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School senior Clare Martell dives to begin the 100-yard breaststroke race Thursday at SCHS. Martell took first place by nearly 12 seconds.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School swimmer Lydia Colon finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:14.69. The Hawks lost the dual meet to Seymour, 87-83.
From the very beginning of Thursday’s competition, the Shawano/Bonduel girls showed they were ready to compete for a win in their first swim meet of the season at Shawano Community High School.
The Hawks finished 1-2 in the opening 200-yard medley relay, getting a jumpstart on the visiting Seymour Thunder, and built a sizable lead going into the 15-minute intermission for Parent’s Night.
After intermission, however, Seymour fought back and stole an 87-83 victory with a 1-2 finish in the final event of the night.
“It’s very hard to predict how things are going to turn out. We have our veterans where we know where they will fall, and they fought for it,” SCHS head coach Sharon Hanson said. “And then we have our new people where we just don’t know where they are going to fall yet, and they did really good.”
Following the 200 medley relay, Shawano increased its lead as Clare Martell and Emme Quandt took the top two places in the 200 individual medley.
Senior Alyssa Anker then went on to win the 50 freestyle in 28.41, and sophomore Peyton Hrabik placed third, two seconds behind her.
Quandt took the 100 butterfly title to extend the Hawks’ lead halfway through the competition, which was Shawano’s first Bay Conference dual meet of the year.
Although Anker won the following 100 freestyle, Seymour seemed to find its stride.
The Thunder took second, third and fourth behind Anker, and then took the top three spots in the 500 freestyle.
“I really knew that we had stronger freestylers, so that kind of made a difference,” Seymour head coach Sarah Collins said. “That brought the girls to the point where they really believed.”
Through the final five varsity races, Martell was the only SCHS swimmer to take first (100 breaststroke).
SCHS still held a six-point advantage, however, going into the final relay, the 400 freestyle. Seymour took the top two spots again, securing the victory.
“We know that across the board in our conference, everybody lost some seniors (last year),” Hanson said. “We kind of feel like it’s a pretty even playing field in our conference right now, so we know every meet is going to be a nail-biter.”