With the state swimming championships beginning Thursday, teams are hunting for championships and classification records
State championship season for winter sports always kicks off with the state swimming meet, and that will be the case this week as swimmers will head to EPIC (Fort Collins) and the VMAC (Thornton) to determine who is the best in 2019.
Longmont (Class 3A), Rampart (4A) and Fossil Ridge (5A) won team championships last year and also amassed their fair share of individual titles along the way. The Rams and Sabercats return a slew of young swimmers and will look to defend their titles.
After falling just short of the state title last year, Pueblo County has put itself in a strong position in the 3A team race. The 3A meet will be held by itself in Fort Collins while 4A and 5A will battle it out at the VMAC in Thornton. Among the many storylines heading into the weekend, there will be tight team races and individual events that could see records fall.
Team races
Class 5A
Fossil Ridge (Fort Collins) isn't messing around this year and comes into the 5A meet looking to win its fourth state championship in five years. The SaberCats suffered some key graduation losses, but senior
Coleen Gillilan returns with plenty of experience and plenty of talent behind her.
In its first year competing in 5A, Valor Christian brings a strong swimming tradition to the pool and cannot be counted out by any means. The sister tandem of
Ashley Stenstrom and
Lindsay Stenstrom will try to keep in the Eagles in contention for their second state swimming championship.
Class 4A
The race for the 4A title might provide the most drama for fans all weekend.
Rampart (Colorado Springs) and
Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs) both look strong and are at the top or near the top of almost every swimming event on the docket.
Lindsey Immel and
Edenna Chen will be major factors in their respective events for the Rams and will also factor into the success of the relay teams as well.
For the Indians,
Frances Hayward and
Harper Lehman are within a second of the top spot in several events. Hayward has paced the entire 4A class in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of one minute, 55.55 seconds.
Silver Creek (Longmont) and
Mullen (Denver) each have a shot to be in contention this weekend, but the depth of Cheyenne Mountain and Rampart might be too much for either team.
Class 3AAfter a disappointing second-place finish a year ago,
Pueblo County is out for redemption. Senior
Amanda Blickensderfer should find the podium in four individual events and help the Hornets to medals in the three relay races. Teammate
Alexa Musso will also be a factor in the relays and her individual events as well.
With the top-seeded time in four events,
Evergreen is looking to make a run of its own.
Remi Gucker will try to give the team a boost in the 200 and 500 freestyle. She'll also be a factor on the 400 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay teams.
Ainsley Nalen and
Jolie Kim will look to do their part in putting a young
Kent Denver (Cherry Hills Village) team in the mix early. If the Sun Devils can get near the top of the podium in the 200 freestyle and 200 IM, it will go a long way in keeping them in contention for a team title.
Individual Events*
200 medley relay – The first event of the meet could set the tone when it comes to the 5A meet. Fairview,
Mountain Vista (Highlands Ranch) and
Cherry Creek (Greenwood Village) log three of the top four times in the state this year, all within just over two seconds of each other. The Fairview team of
Riley Tapley,
Emma Weber,
Jenna Reznicek and Kaia Reznicek came in at 1 minute, 43.96 seconds at the Rex Abelein Memorial Invitational in December. That mark stands as the best so far this year and they'll look to uphold that time at the VMAC on the Saturday.
In 4A, Edenna Chen and Lindsey Immel return from last year's relay team that the class record of 1:42.864. The Rams kicked off swimming finals by setting that record and then working their way to a team title. Based on qualifying times, Mullen presents the biggest challenge to Rampart with
Micaela Clode,
Claire Chahbandour,
Lindsey Sowitch and
Sofia Zinis making up the team aspiring to dethrone Rampart.
Aspen gets the early edge in 3A, qualifying in 1:50.29, less than two seconds off the 3A record tiem the Skiers set in 2017. Pueblo County won the event last year and the entire team of
Kandi Liberato, Amanda Blickensderfer,
Anna Maurello and Alexa Musso return and will try to repeat. They qualified in 1:50.82, putting them in striking distance of Aspen.
*
50 Freestyle – As hard as it is to believe, one of the greatest swimmers in Colorado history could have her name fall from a state record.
Meredith Smithbaker of
Rocky Mountain (Fort Collins) and
Meredith Rees of
Lewis-Palmer (Monument) have both logged races within a second of Missy Franklin's 22.41 record. Smithbaker and Rees will be battling for the top spot on that podium, but they might just be able to push each other enough that they can take a record away from one of the best to ever jump in a pool.
Caitlin Cairns of
St. Mary's (Colorado Springs) will look to do the same at EPIC. The 3A record of 23.503 was set in 2017 by Aspen's Kennidy Quist. Kerns qualified with a time of 24.25, putting her about three-quarters of a second off the mark. She'll be pushed by Aspen's
Davy Brown,
La Junta's Emily Moreland and Pueblo County's Alexa Musso who have all qualified with times under 25 seconds.
In 4A, there are 10 swimmers that all finished within a second of each other and should give spectators a thrilling race. Lindsey Immel leads all qualifiers with a time of 24.08. With
Anna Shaw of
Heritage (Littleton) and Lindsey Stenstrom moving up to 5A, it appears as though Immel, Sofia Zinis out of Mullen and
Highlands Ranch's Aimee Burton come into the sprint as the favorites.
*
100 Butterfly – Silver Creek's
Emma Hermeston is looking to make a big jump from her seventh-place finish as a freshman. She has the third-best time coming into the 4A meet and is less than a half-second behind
Grand Junction's Sarah Cook.
Payten Irwin, a sophomore at Niwot last year, will head into the 3A meet as a part of
Erie's team. She finished fourth last year and will look to take down Pueblo County's Amanda Blickensderfer to claim the 100 fly 3A title.
Fossil Ridge has the top two swimmers in 5A as Renee Gillian and
Lucy Bell (both freshmen) earned top qualifying spots. This race will be key to the team race in 5A as Fairview's Riley Tapley and Mikayla Seigal qualified in spots two and three.
*
100 backstroke – In a race that could factor into the 5A team title outcome, Fairview will have an opportunity to gain a boost in team points. Tapley seems like a lock for a top-three finish and will do whatever she can to pry the gold medal away from Lewis-Palmer's Rees. Fossil Ridge freshman
Renee Gillilan is seeded fourth headed in preliminaries and needs to shave at least a second off her time to grab a top-three placement. Jenna Reznicek and
Mya Drost-Parra are also seeded in the top-10 for Fairview.
After a second-place finish in 2018,
Niwot's Abigail Shaw enters the 4A race as the No. 3 qualifier.
Katey Lewicki of
Monarch (Louisville) takes the top spot and her time of 54.85 is within reach of the 54.224 record time that Fort Collins' Audrey Reimer set a year ago.
Evergreen's
Maggie McDonald is the only 3A swimmer to qualify for the event in under a minute. But the race overall will provide some drama as the top five qualifiers finished less than three-quarters of a second apart.
*
100 Breaststroke – Maybe one of the tightest races across all three meets, the 3A 100 breaststroke has three swimmers that could come away with wins on any given day. La Junta's Moreland has logged the fastest time this year at 1:05.37. But at state last year, she finished third to County's Blickensderfer and
Sydney Dolloff-Holt of
Manitou Springs. Blickensderfer has the 3A record at 1:05.27, a 10th of a second faster than Moreland's qualifying time. Both Dolloff-Holt and Blickensderfer finished within a second of that record time a year ago adding more intrigue to this race.
Rampart's Chen and Cheyenne Mountain's
Sophia Bricker will each look to claim gold this year. Chen is the returning champion from last year and Bricker finished third in the event. They'll head into the VMAC with the two top qualifying times and their battle against each other will be just as important for team points as it is their personal successes.
*
400 freestyle relay – The grand finale at the state meet is always filled with drama and emotion. This year will be no different, especially at 5A. The Valor Christian team of Ashley Stenstrom,
AJ Adams,
Makayla Hoehn and Lindsey Stenstrom will swim in the top class this year after winning the even in 4A a year ago. Their winning time of 3:28.05 would've topped every 5A qualifying time this year. Adams takes the spot of Ella Kirschke, but the team is still strong. To take first, they'll have to beat the Mountain Vista unit of
Annie Osmun,
Parker Henry,
Brooke Ford and
Holley Dennis.
Evergreen heads into the 3A race as the only team with a qualifying time that suggests they could challenge for a record in its respective classification. Like Dakota Ridge, the Cougars claimed the top qualifying time this last weekend at the Jeffco League championships.
