By Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
On Friday five Merrill swimmers traveled to Madison for the state swim meet. Of the seven events they qualified in the Merrill swimmers placed top 10 in five.
In the 200 yard freestyle Grace Schultz took seventh place with a swim of 1:56.73. Grace later swam in the 100 yard backstroke and took fourth place with a swim of 58.17. The 50 yard freestyle saw Claire Schultz take seventh place, swimming a time of 24.47. In the 100 yard freestyle Claire would finish in eighth place with a swim of 53.68. Trinity Kanitz swam in the 500 yard freestyle and took 13th place, swimming a time of 5:26.83.
In the 200 yard freestyle relay swam by Grace Schultz, Erin Kanitz, Trinity Kanitz and Claire Schultz, Merrill took seventh place with a swim of 1:41.24. The 400 yard freestyle relay, swam by the same girls, saw Merrill take 12th place, swimming a time of 3:46.03.
Merrill coach Kristie Winter was happy with how her team performed this season saying, “The girls had an amazing season and grew so much as a team. We broke every single high school team record, many of them multiple times. During our dual meet season we only lost three meets setting us at 5-3 overall. Then went on to take third in the Valley and first at sectionals. We are a very young team with two freshmen, two sophomores and one junior qualifying for state this year, all of our state swimmers should be back for next year older, stronger and wiser. Besides our state swimmers it’s important to note we have some other very strong freshmen who just missed state this year like Bailey Orzech and Emma Pajtash who both helped us win the sectional meet. They came along to State to gain some big meet experience as alternates for the relay.”
Coach Winter ended her comments saying, “The depth of the Merrill swim program is increasing each year and we are becoming a force to be reckoned with.”