AURORA | It had been more than a decade since Robin Allen had led the Rangeview girls swim team to the Aurora Public Schools championship, but she knew the drill Saturday.
Coaches go into the pool first for the post-meet celebration — sometimes with the unsolicited help of the swimmers — but Allen quickly put down the championship plaque from the Raiders’ 18th consecutive victory in the district meet, got up on the starting blocks and dove into the Aurora Central pool.
She was joined shortly by her coaching staff and her group of Rangeview swimmers and divers that had amassed 475.5 points to continue its dominance of a meet that returned after it was lost last season to the coronavirus pandemic and celebrated its 32nd anniversary.
Junior Savannah Snow won two events (200 yard freestyle and 100 yard backstroke), while Bella Gonzalez, Lexi Finnimore and diver Hailey McDonald won individually and the Raiders swept the relay events for Allen, who is back as head coach of the program that she held before Peter Gerard had it for the last decade-plus.
Senior Alyssa Lutz won two championships and nearly stole the meet-ending 400 yard freestyle relay for coach Beth Himes’ Hinkley team, which finished as the runner-up with 237.5 points.
Lutz finished her career with five APS championships, adding the 50 and 100 yard freestyles this year, while she just got touched out trying to get the T-Birds to win the 400 relay. Freshman Hermione Aguilar Lemus added the 100 yard butterfly title for Hinkley.
Host Aurora Central picked up 163 points to hold off Gateway (149), which had the other individual event champion in senior Jenny Lorie, who captured the 100 yard breaststroke.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
32ND AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIP GIRLS SWIM MEET
Jan. 29 at Aurora Central H.S.
Team scores: 1. Rangeview 475.5 points; 2. Hinkley 237.5; 3. Aurora Central 163; 4. Gateway 149
200 yard medley relay — 1. Rangeview A (Savannah Snow, Bella Gonzalez, Hailey McDonald, Kateland Rodriguez), 2 minutes, 23.04 seconds; 200 yard freestyle — 1. Savannah Snow (Rangeview), 2 minutes, 23.99 seconds; 200 yard individual medley — 1. Bella Gonzalez (Rangeview), 3 minutes, 1.34 seconds; 50 yard freestyle — 1. Alyssa Lutz (Hinkley), 28.02 seconds; 1-meter diving — 1. Hailey McDonald (Rangeview), 304.55 points; 100 yard butterfly — 1. Hermione Aguilar Lemus (Hinkley), 1 minute, 16.54 seconds; 100 yard freestyle — 1. Alyssa Lutz (Hinkley), 1 minute, 2.33 seconds; 500 yard freestyle — 1. Lexi Finnimore (Rangeview), 6 minutes, 45.46 seconds; 200 yard freestyle relay — 1. Rangeview A (Savannah Snow, Leilani Ransburg, Kateland Rodriguez, Shemiah Turner), 2 minutes, 1.36 seconds; 100 yard backstroke — 1. Savannah Snow (Rangeview), 1 minute, 12.62 seconds; 100 yard breaststroke — 1. Jenny Lorie (Gateway), 1 minute, 23.84 seconds; 400 yard freestyle relay — 1. Rangeview A (Hailey McDonald, Kylie Hopper, Phoenix Hug, Shemiah Turner), 4 minutes, 45.21 seconds
— Full APS Championship meet results, here
