By Jennifer Eisenbart
Sports Editor
In a dual meet earlier this year, the Burlington co-op swim meet came up just short of Elkhorn – thanks in large part to Elkhorn’s depth.
On Saturday at the Southern Lakes Conference swim meet, the Demons turned the tables, using superior depth and some outstanding individual performances to finish second at the SLC meet.
As expected, Badger won the meet going away with 498 point. But the co-op squad finished second with 410 points, beating out Elkhorn, which scored 380.
“Everybody did really well,” said Burlington coach Denita Jones. “We pulled it out and beat Elkhorn. I was happy that we were able to pull that off.”
Burlington was led by outstanding individual efforts from the three Wanasek sisters – Serena, Sara and Olivia – but the team edged out Elkhorn in terms of “B” relay finishes, and also beat out the Elks in terms of total points on some individual events.
“It was just nice to be able to do it yesterday,” said Jones. “We had some awesome swims.”
Senior Serena Wanasek posted Burlington’s two event victories, taking the 200 freestyle in 1:55.80 – setting a new conference record in the process – and then the 500 free in 5:16.81. Sister Sara backed her up with a third in the 200 (2:02.47) and second in the 500 (5:25.45), while Olivia was fifth in the 200 free (2:04.90).
The three sisters also combined on two of Burlington’s top relay efforts. The three swam with Hannah Meyer to take third in the 200 free relay in 1:44.99, and with Ellie Petrie (who split a season-best 58.07 in the event) to take second in 3:46.51.
The 200 medley relay of Natalie Pufahl, Hannah Duerst, Samantha Dziak and Meyer took fourth in 2:01.29. In addition, all three of Burlington’s “B” relays took seventh, which gave the co-op squad a 12-point advantage on relay points.
“My ‘B’ relays all had best times on their splits,” Jones said. “Those ‘B’ really brought us into second place.”
Two of the three “B” relays – with Paytin Kennicott, Eilis Purath, DeAnn Jones and Petrie in the 200 medley relay and Kennicott, Purath, Jones and Brown in the 200 free relay – came together in the last week and hadn’t really swum together.
Burlington also came up with 17 different individual top-10 finishes. In addition to the Wanasek sisters, Kaley Brown (2:27.76) and Purath (2:29.24) finished eighth and ninth in the 200 individual medley, and Dziak (1:05.32) and Brown (1:07.46) were fourth and seventh in the 100 butterfly. Dziak also added a 10th in the 100 breaststroke (1:19.17).
Petrie finished eighth in the open 100 free, again in a season best (59.22), and Candace Dziubinski posted Burlington’s third top-10 finish in the 500 free by taking seventh in 5:46.53.
The co-op squad’s final top 10s came in the 100 backstroke, where Petrie took fourth (1:03.69), Olivia Wanasek fifth (1:04.36), Paytin Kennicott eighth (1:06.54) and Pufahl 10th (1:07.04).
“Most of these girls haven’t started their taper yet,” Jone said. “So I wasn’t expecting these drops. It was a pleasant surprise.”
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