Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
The Merrill swim team held tight with some of the best division II schools in the state at the Lodi swim invitational on Saturday, Sept. 14. Merrill swimmers broke two school records at the meet and placed top three in eight of 11 events, on their way to a third place finish.
“This was a great opportunity for our kids to see some of last year’s state champions in the pool,” comments Merrill head coach Kristie Winter. “The new freshman hung close with them. They got a nice taste of what is to come later in the season.”
In the first event of the meet the took second place in a record breaking time. The 200 medley relay, swam by Evelyn Blennert, Amber Winter, Camryn Schulz and Trinity Kanitz, saw Merrill swim a time of 1:57.08, finishing just one second behind the first place team. Later, the relay team of Blennert, Winter, Schulz and Erin Kanitz, took second place in the 200 freestyle relay, swimming a time of 1:45.31.
In solo swims, Blennert would go on to break the Merrill school record and take second place in the 100 butterfly. Blennert swam a time of 1.01.92, finishing just .49 seconds behind the first place finisher. Later, Blennert would take third place in the 100 backstroke, swimming a time of 1:04.18. Schulz would finish right behind Blennert in the 100 butterfly, swimming a time of 1:05.95, for a third place finish. Schulz also placed second in the 50 freestyle, swimming a time of 26.62. Erin Kanitz placed third in the 200 freestyle, swimming a time of 2:07.95. Erin would later place fifth in the 100 freestyle, with a swim of 1:00.56. Winter had a nice swim in the 100 breaststroke, swimming a time of 1:14.37, for a third place finish. Trinity Kanitz did the distance swimming for Merrill, taking second place in the 500 freestyle, with a swim of 5:42.70.
Merrill had a very nice showing in the invitational, especially considering they were short five varsity swimmers. “The team short five swimmers due to a marching band competition,” added Winter. “We really pulled together scoring 20 more points than last year. Every swimmer scored at least some points for the team. We had some great performances by the entire team with several personal best swims.”
Once the water settled Merrill came out of the invite in third place with 211 points. Merrill placed behind Edgerton with 241 points and Monroe/New Glarus who totaled 322 points.
Merrill will host Wisconsin Valley Conference rival Wausau West for their conference opener on Thursday, Sept. 19, with the first event starting at 5:30 p.m. In 2018 Wausau West finished at the bottom of the Wisconsin Valley Conference with 90 points, where Merrill took third with 294 points, behind only D.C. Everest and SPASH.