October 20, 2011 at 9:49 a.m.
Wildcats lose nailbiter to Cambridge-Isanti in swimming
Wildcats lose nailbiter to Cambridge-Isanti in swimming
Although the North Suburban Conference schedule was warpped up already, Chisago Lakes still had one big match left on their docket.
The Bluejackets have typically beaten the Wildcats by a wide margin, and they have developed a nice rivalry for non-conference schools. The latest chapter in the battle will only enlarge the importance of the meet for each team in the future.
The Wildcats took a quick early lead when they got a first place finish from Thomi Lee, Bailey Strand, Dani Berg and Araya Gamble in the 200 medley relay event. The Bluejackets took second and third, however, and CL only was up 8-6.
The 'Cats lost the led in the second event as C-I took first, third and fourth in the 200 freestyle. Kayla Donahue get second place for CL and Hannah Emeott finished in fifth.
Chisago Lakes tied the meet at 23 when Nicole Bean and Berg went one-two in the 200 individual medley. Berg edged the third place girl from C-I by four tenths of a second.
Chisago reclaimed the lead by two points with a first and third place finish from Lee and Gamble in the 50 freestyle race.
The lead remained unchanged after the diving event when Sam Thomsen, Courtney Schlegel and Cassie Schlegel went two-three-five in the event.
CL stretched their lead to six points after the 100 butterfly. Bean and Gamble went one-two in the event with times of 1:06.56 and 1:09.69.
The Bluejackets began to close to distance between the two by chipping two points off the lead in the next two events, the 100 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. Berg won the 100 freestyle and Donahue won the 500 freestyle, but in both events, the Jackets got the second, third and fourth place finished, flaunting just a bit more depth than Chisago Lakes.
Megan Colburn, Bean, Madeline Maxwell and Lee teamed up to get two of those points back with a first place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. They beat the first C-I quartet by two tenths of a second, finishing in 1:50.55. The Jackets' top team finished in 1:50.77.
After that event, the Wildcats had a four point lead with only three events to go and seemed to be in a good spot to finally defeat Cambridge-Isanti.
Lee grabbed another first place for the Wildcats in the 100 backstroke, but again, the Jackets were able to trim a couple points off the lead because of their depth, taking second, third and fourth in the event while Chisago Lakes only took first and fifth.
The tide then took a massive turn in Cambridge's direction in the 100 breaststroke. The Bluejackets got the first, second and fourth place finish to turn a two-point deficit into a six point lead with only one event left. The most painful part for CL was that the swimmers in the breaststroke weren't far off. Strand, who came in third, was less than one second away from moving up a spot. Kristina Audette and Kimberly Colburn swam phenomenal races and missed out on fourth place by sixth tenths of a second and just under a second and a half, respectively. Audette finished in 1:24.10 and Colburn finished in 1:24.87 while the fourth place finisher from C-I finished in 1:23.51.
The Wildcats were swimming for the meet in the 400 freestyle relay. They need to grab the top two spots to tie the meet and they needed to sweep all three spots if they wanted to win outright. Although they got a first place from Gamble, Donahue, Berg and Bean, C-I got the second and third place finishes, and the 'Cats fell 95-91 in a thrilling meet.
"Wow, did we have a good meet against Cambridge-Isanti," Head Coach Ed Wakefield said after the meet.
"They got us but I thought they would beat us handily. he line up we went with to match up with them really worked out well. We just needed to slide a couple into fourth or fifth to win the darn thing."
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