By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The 200-yard medley relay of the Elkhorn Area High School girls’ swimming team made a statement Nov. 2 at the Southern Lakes Conference girls’ swim meet at Whitewater High School.
Lilly Remington, Rachel Anderson, Kady Ruemmele and Emily Ames, seeded second, won the relay in 1 minute, 54 seconds. They beat Whitewater’s relay team by more than two seconds.
“They won by quite a bit,” coach Jamie Richardson said. “That sets the tone. The first race sets the tone. Everyone says, ‘They did well. We can come in and do well ourselves.’”
The Elks finished third with 333 points. Lake Geneva won the meet and the conference title with 488 points. Burlington finished second (446).
Whitewater finished fourth (268), Platteville/Lancaster fifth (246), Jefferson/Cambridge sixth (189), Edgerton/Evansville seventh (144) and Delavan-Darien eighth (51).
The Elks’ finish is in line with where they finished in regular season dual meets. The Elks lost only two of seven SLC dual meets – 108-62 to Lake Geneva Combined on Oct. 15 and 100-70 to Burlington Combined Oct. 8.
“We lost to Badger and Burlington earlier, obviously, and they’re tough Division 1 schools,” Richardson said. “We came in where I thought we would.
“We swam really well. We had a lot of people step up.”
Richardson said one swimmer who stepped up due to an injury in the Elks’ ranks is Gabby Pinnow. Pinnow swam three events in a row – the 500 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay and 100 backstroke – and posted season-best times in each event.
Richardson also commended Abby Flasch, who finished fifth in the 500 freestyle (5:54).
“… a really nice surprise,” Richardson said of Flasch, “and awesome to see that from her – to see her step up.”
Avonlea Odling and Rachel Anderson finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 100 breaststroke. Odling finished in 1:13.76 to Anderson’s 1:13.94. Richardson said Odling dropped more than three seconds off her previous best.
Ames posted her best time of the season (26.23 seconds) and finished third in the 50 freestyle, Megan Leahy finished sixth (26.57),
Ruemmele finished second in the 100 backstroke (1:02) and third in the 200 individual medley (2:16). Audrey Earle, Ames, Remington and Leahy finished third in the 200 freestyle relay (1:45).
On Saturday the Elks compete in the Whitewater Sectional meet at UW-Whitewater for spots at the WIAA Division 2 State Swimming and Diving Meet. The winner at every sectional in every event advances to state, as do those with the top 12 times statewide.
“It’ll be nice that it’s close,” Richardson said. “We’re used to traveling an hour plus to go to our sectional meet. A half-hour, max, is nice.”
Richardson said the Elks’ sectional is the second-toughest, behind the Baraboo sectional, of the four Division 2 sectional meets.
“It gives us the advantage,” Richardson said. “You swim faster against faster kids. If you’re in a slow or weak sectional, it’s tougher to make it to state.”
