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By Emily Messina, Swimming World College Intern
Many high schoolers from across the country are preparing for their state championship meet. In Colorado, girls in classes 3A, 4A, and 5A are tapering down and mentally composing themselves for their state meet coming up this weekend – February 9-11. Classes 3A and 5A will be held at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton, while 4A will race at the Edora Pool Ice Center in Fort Collins.
Colorado Girls swimming will introduce class 3A this year in an effort to spread out the swimmers in 4A and 5A and to give the opportunity for more athletes to compete. A few schools have changed classes which will put an interesting spin on team champions and individual places.
3A
Photo Courtesy: Ryan Casey
For Class 3A, prelims will be swum Friday morning, diving prelims will occur Saturday morning, and all finals will take place Saturday afternoon and into the night.
Aspen High School has some strong swimmers including first seeds in Davy Brown (200 IM, 100 backstroke) and Kennidy Quist (50 free, 100 free). The team also have the top seed in the 200 Medley Relay and the 400 Freestyle Relay.
Alex Reddington of St. Mary’s Academy currently sits in first in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly by two seconds in each event. D’Evelyn’s Abbey Selin holds the top spot in the 500 freestyle by over five seconds, and she is also the second seed in the 200 freestyle. Additionally, look for some strong racing from Colorado Academy’s Aly Gallagher (200 free, 100 free) and Anne Younger (50 free, 100 backstroke). Pueblo County’s Amanda Blickensderfer and Emily Dolloff-Holt of Manitou Springs will contend for the gold in the 100 breaststroke.
For diving, Durango has three athletes in Tess Burgwald, Ruby Epstein, and Kylie Behn. Discovery Canyon is also sending three competitors including Allison Olson, Tatum Libby, and Rachel Alexander. Estes Park is represented by seniors Olivia Reins and Ivy Todd and junior Bailey Ash.
4A
Photo Courtesy: Gazette Preps
4A will begin their prelims on Friday afternoon. The preliminaries for diving will occur on Saturday morning. All finals will be Saturday afternoon.
Valor Christian will attempt to repeat their championship win from 2016. They will look to have strong swims from Ella Kirschke (200 IM), Lindsay Stenstrom (50 free), and Madison Hoehn (100 butterfly). In addition, Abbey Owenby has the top seed in the 500 free and the second seed in the 200 Free. The team will send three divers to the meet.
Senior Kate McDonald of Evergreen will attempt to retain her title in the 500 freestyle. Windsor’s Morgan Friesen will look to do the same in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke. Kylie Andrews of Heritage has the top spot in both the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
Thompson Valley will boast six divers, Loveland will take five, and Valor Christian will bring four. Niwot’s Madison Barkow and Izzi Mroz of Valor Christian will be a strong contenders in a big and impressive field.
5A
Photo Courtesy: CHSAA
The diving prelims for 5A will take place on Thursday morning with the swimming prelims following shortly. The finals will begin in the late afternoon on Friday.
Fairview High School looks to bring the title home again after besting Regis Jesuit and Fossil Ridge back in 2016. Along with having multiple top swimmers, they boast a full range of depth. Amelie Lessing, Mya Drost-Parra, Alex Schwier in the all rank in the top 10 in the 200 IM. Brittney Beetcher, the defending champion, is the top seed in the 200 free. She is followed by teammate Mikayla Seigal in fourth. Beetcher also sits at first with a 10-second gap over the second seed in the 500 freestyle. Kim Lanaghen, Drost-Parra, Seigal, and Una Forsythe provide depth in the 100 butterfly. Lessing joins her in this event. Additionally, they will have three divers competing.
Fossil Ridge will bring some fast competition to this state championship meet. They currently holds the top spot in all three of the relays. In addition, they have six first seeds in a variety of individual events with senior Bailey Kovac (200 IM), Kylee Alons (50 free, 100 free), Zoe Bartel (100 breast), Bayley Stewart (100 back), and Coleen Gillilan (100 butterfly). Gillilan won the butterfly last year. Look for her to go after the current state record (53.22). The team will also have two divers representing them.
The meet information can be found here and the psych sheets can be found here.
Good Luck , to all the Girls Competing