Point by precious point slipped away from the Regis Jesuit girls swim team, which built to a high stakes final race at the Class 5A state meet Feb. 9.
The Raiders had positioned themselves well to end a three-year reign by Cherry Creek atop the classification, but as the championship and consolation finals unfolded, the situation eroded.
Senior Charlotte Burnham’s state championship-winning performance in the 100 yard breaststroke gave Regis Jesuit a slight lead, but coach Nick Frasersmith’s Raiders had to have at least a second place finish in the 400 freestyle relay to secure the program’s first state title since 2014.
Three teams beat Burnham to the wall, however, as the Bruins snatched a three-point victory in the closest state competition in more than a decade. Regis Jesuit finished with 359 points to the 362 generated by Cherry Creek, which swept the relays and won five total events.
The Raiders — who lost major points when they failed to qualify for the championship finals in the 200 freestyle relay — instead finished second for a second straight season. Grandview took sixth, Cherokee Trail ninth and Smoky Hill 18th in a strong local showing.
“I was proud of them, and they fought hard,” Frasersmith said. “They were a great team that was so supportive of each other from Day One. They wanted each other to do so well, so it’s tough to see a group of girls who worked so hard lose it by such a little bit.”
Regis Jesuit collected 41 points in the diving competition Feb. 7 as seniors Maya Kriz and Sarah Mann finished second and third. Kriz finished second to Fossil Ridge’s Sydney Ovesen by just 3.2 points — which kept three points away from the Raiders — while Mann finished in third place for a second straight season (see story, here).
Things started out in a promising way in the 200 medley relay with a second-place finish for Burnham, fellow senior Tierney Kohl and freshmen Natalie Daum and Ava Terella.
Those four would be major point scorers for the Raiders along with sophomore Lexi Stramel, as they made two championship finals apiece. Burnham was the top seed in the prelims of the 50 freestyle and finished second, Daum was fifth in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke, Stramel finished ninth in both distance freestyle events and Terella was fourth in the 100 butterfly and eighth in the 100 backstroke.
Regis Jesuit finished one place outside of qualifying for the championship finals in the 200 freestyle (by a mere 0.28 of a second) and slipped one more spot into 12th when Rock Canyon edged them. That kept four points off their total in the event, while Cherry Creek grabbed 30 more by winning.
The Raiders got back into the lead, however, in the breaststroke as Burnham turned in a personal-best time of 1 minute, 1.90 seconds, for a second straight title. The Cal-Berkeley recruit led three Regis Jesuit swimmers in the finals as Kohl finished seventh and senior Emme Penry 10th.
Cherry Creek’s Sydney Fernstrom moved up three spots from prelims to finals (a difference of three points), however, to put the outcome of the meet squarely on the final event.
The Bruins were the No. 5 seed after prelims, but stacked the final relay and won it by nearly five seconds. Burnham followed junior Elise Kittleson, Terella and senior Amelia Marsicek into the water and closed a gap, but came in 0.73 of a second behind runner-up Heritage and also behind Fairview to see the title slip away.
“When you look back, you can find those three points so many places,” Frasersmith said.
Afterwards, Burnham was named 5A Swimmer of the Year and Frasersmith 5A Swim Coach of the Year in voting of peers.
There were tears at the end, but Burnham will carry away plenty of happy memories.
“I think years down the line, I won’t remember that we got second place heartbreakingly, but I will remember the incredible group of girls that we did it with and how we were all there for each other,” she said. “Nick mentioned to us that he hadn’t seen a girls team closer than this one in the past 20 years, so it was an honor to be a part of that.”
— Full Class 5A girls state swim meet team scores and results, here
— Aurora’s school-by-school list of Class 5A girls swimming state placers, here
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
