By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Thursday night the Merrill swim team traveled to Marshfield for a conference meet against the Tigers. Merrill would bring home their third conference win of the year, topping the Tigers 111-59.
In the 200 yard medley relay Merrill’s team of Grace Schultz, Emma Pajtash, Claire Schultz and Trinity Kanitz, took first place with a time of 2:02.27. The 200 yard freestyle relay saw another Merrill first place with a swim of 1:47.04, by Grace Schultz, Erin Kanitz, Trinity Kanitz and Claire Schultz. Merrill would later win the 400 yard freestyle relay, swam by Erin Kanitz, Bailey Orzech, Emma Pajtash and Camryn Schulz, in a time of 4:21.24.
The 200 yard freestyle was won by Merrill’s Bailey Orzech, who swam a time of 2:12.47. The 200 yard IM was won by Claire Schultz, swimming a time of 2:20.87. Erin Kanitz would take third in the event, swimming a time of 2:30.88. In the 50 yard freestyle Trinity Kanitz swam a time of 27.14, good enough for first place, with teammate Camryn Schulz coming in second with a swim of 27.55. Grace Schultz then took first place in the 100 yard butterfly, swimming a time of 1:04.77. Later in the meet Grace Schultz would take first place in the 100 yard breaststroke, swimming a time of 1:14.11.
“After a week of homecoming themed practices everyone swam in events that were outside their comfort zone,” comments head coach Kristie Winter. “Some had not swam these events since they were middle schoolers. We had some great swims, many personal bests and I think some did a lot better than they expected.”
Coach Winter later added, “After our fun week this week we are going to get back to work for a very tough second half of the season. We still need to compete against the other non-defeated teams in the conference who all out number our team 3-1. We start with a very strong DCE team on Thursday at home.”
Merrill is now 3-0 in conference meets and 4-0 in season dual meets. Merrill will have a tough test coming up on Thursday as they host Everest at 5:30 p.m.