The senior class for the Grandview girls swim team put an exclamation point on their exit from prep swimming, while some encouraging signs for the future took place at the Class 5A girls state swim meet.
In the first season under coach James Boone, the Wolves easily maintained the program’s recent tradition of top-10 finishes as they accrued 205 points when the finals concluded Friday evening at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center to put them sixth.
Senior standouts Keira Vail, Kaitlyn Hafer and Amelia Brown scored in two individual events apiece, as did freshman Makenna Dyk, while Grandview was a championship finalist in two of three relays and scored in all three and also got points from two divers to finish as the second-highest Aurora area program in the final standings behind runner-up Regis Jesuit.
Junior Addison Campbell and senior Tanvi Jitta got the Wolves started two days earlier as they collected a combined 24 points with finishes of ninth and 12th place, respectively.
Vail — a San Jose State signee — had an outstanding final meet for Grandview, as she improved from her pre-meet seeding in both the 50 and 100 yard freestyles. Her biggest gain came in the 50 freestyle, where she came in seeded 19th with a best time of 24.72, but touched the wall in the championship final in 23.79 for seventh place. Vail also moved up from the No. 7 seed in the 100 freestyle to fifth with a season-best time of 51.65.
Hafer matched Vail for the highest individual finish for the Wolves, as she grabbed fifth place in the 100 breaststroke with a season-best time of 1:05.35. The University of Idaho commit also achieved her season standard time in the 200 individual medley of 2:11.61, which landed her 20th place.
Brown — a two-event winner at the Centennial “A” League Championships — missed out making the championship final of the 50 freestyle by a mere 0.01 of a second, which would have given Grandview three finalists. She swam a season-best time of 23.92 in the consolation finals that put her 12th, but would have ranked ninth had she been in the championship final. Brown won the consolation final of the 100 freestyle in a time of 52.02 that would have put her seventh in the championship final.
Some talented freshmen gave Grandview a boost individually as well as in relays.
Leading the way was Makenna Dyk, who scored in both sprint freestyle events and was a championship finalist in the 50 free. She was the No. 13 seed going into state and moved up to eighth with a time of 23.80 that put her just 0.01 of a second behind Vail in teh championship finals heat. She was seeded 22nd in the 100 free and ended up 15th with a season-best time of 53.33 in the consolation final.
Dyk also swam a leg of the 200 freestyle relay along with fellow freshman Jasia Barnes and seniors Vail and Brown that finished in Aurora area-best third in a time of 1:34.93 that was nearly four seconds faster than the Wolves’ previous season best.
The all-senior 200 medley relay team of Brown, Hafer, Vail and Peyton Belcher — who missed the Centennial “A” League meet while at a club volleyball tournament — grabbed sixth place with a time of 1:46.39 in the finals, while Dyk, Barnes, Belcher and sophomore Emma Busta were 15th in the 400 freestyle relay.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
