No state qualifiers for Truckers

By Scott Bellile

The Clintonville Truckers finished in the middle of the pack at the Division 2 sectional swimming tournament in Stevens Point, placing eighth out of 15 teams on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The Truckers didn’t advance any swimmers to the WIAA State Meet, which takes place this weekend in Madison.

Clintonville coach Lee Wetzel said the girls swam slower at the sectional meet because they were burned out from the Oct. 29 Bay Conference Tournament. They took the conference meet very seriously, Wetzel said, and ultimately won it with a three-point victory over fierce competitor Sturgeon Bay.

The highlight at the sectional was the 200-yard freestyle relay team broke a two-year school record by six one-hundredths of a second. The team, consisting of Sami Smejkal, Allison Graper, Kaitlyn Durkey and Taylor Davies, swam the 200 freestyle in 1:48.69.

The team’s swim broke the 2013 school record of 1:48.75 set by Gabby Goerlinger, Rayne Ruch, Dakota Sears and Sara Messner.
All four girls who swam on the record-setting relay team are in grades nine through 11, so Wetzel said that shows potential for the entire swim team in the years ahead.

“This is a young team with a bright future,” Wetzel said.

Wetzel said the Truckers had a strong season, finishing with a 5-1 record. With “a nice mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors,” the Truckers won the Bay Conference Tournament, Bay Conference Relay meet and the Shawano Sprint Relays.

“These girls had the best season in the nine years of Clintonville swimming history,” Wetzel said.

Results
200-yard medley relay: 6 Clintonville (Kaitlyn Durkey, Allison Graper, Sami Smejkal and Taylor Davies), 2:01.96.

200-yard freestyle: 17 Emily Graper 2:17.54. 24 Maria Wood 2:31.49.

50-yard individual medley: 9 Taylor Davies 26.71. 15 Sami Smejkal 27.72. 30 Morgan Mehlberg 30.31.

100-yard butterfly: 8 Allison Graper 1:06.08.

100-yard freestyle: 13 Taylor Davies 58.86. 17 Sami Smejkal 1:00.88. 24 Rayne Ruch 1:03.22.

500-yard freestyle: 16 Jordan Tellock 6:17.29. 20 Emily Graper 6:30.18. 28 Maria Wood 7:02.46.

200-yard freestyle relay: Clintonville (Sami Smejkal, Allison Graper, Kaitlyn Durkey, Taylor Davies) 1:48.69.

100-yard backstroke: 16 Kaitlyn Durkey 1:12.23.22 Jordan Tellock 1:16.38.

100-yard breaststroke: 9 Allison Graper 1:16.47. 28 Natalie Walker 1:27.34. 29 Cassie Hoffman 1:27.43.

400-yard freestyle relay: 12 Clintonville (Morgan Mehlberg, Jordan Tellock, Cassie Hoffman and Emily Graper) 4:32.11.