For the Tomahawk Leader

RHINELANDER – The 2020 Sectional swim meet began on Friday, Nov. 6 with Karlie Woodall placing 2nd and qualifying for the 3rd time to the WIAA state swim and dive meet in Waukesha on Friday, Nov. 13. She set a new school record, scoring 395.8.

Saturday witnessed the swimmers in a sub-sectional in Rhinelander. Another sub-sectional was being hosted by Medford. The combined times were then cumulated for team and individual scores.

All three relays improved on their seed times, and the 200 free relay would have made the podium with an 8th place finish of 1:52.87. There were nine personal records achieved and each swimmer had at least one personal record.

Leading the team was Joanna Phillips with four PR’s. Joanna broke the minute mark in the 100 freestyle and also her anchoring of the 400 free relay with times of 58.95 and 58.08, respectively. She also dropped her time in the open 50 freestyle, winning her heat in an outside lane with a time of 26.56, and then swimming a 25.72 in her leg of the 200 freestyle relay.

“Joanna has worked extremely hard all season and her effort paid off well,” said head coach Theresa L’Esperance.

The Medley relay had three personal records as Stefan, Skubal and Johnson all swam personal records in the fly, breaststroke and backstroke. Abby Jaecks and Brynnen Stefan both improved in their distance event, the 500. Johnson continued her personal records with swimming a 1:16 in the backstroke. New swimmer Maddy List took almost four seconds off her time in the 100 freestyle.

“It was a fun race to watch, as she totally outdistanced her competitors,” L’Esperance stated.