CENTENNIAL | The Eaglecrest girls swim team swept the three relay events and took first place in six other events Thursday on its way to a Centennial League dual meet victory against visiting Mullen.
Coach Jillian Fehringer’s Raptors earned its first league victory with 126 points that came on the strength of wins in the 200 yard medley, 200 yard freestyle and 400 yard freestyle relays, all of which came up just short of posting Class 5A state qualifying times.
Individually, senior Lin Naraoka — who anchored two of the winning relays — won two events, while seniors Alex Jones and Quinn Paulson and junior Sadie Halladay also claimed swimming events and junior Lily Grigorian topped the diving competition.
Naraoka anchored the 200 medley relay (which also included sophomores Xuan-Nguyen Do and Sadie Ballou and junior Cailyn Baldermann) to the wall in 2 minutes, 3.17 seconds, which was just 0.17 off the 5A state mark of 2:03, which the team achieved prior to winter break. She then won the 200 yard individual medley in 2:03.70 and later swam 59.10 to take the 100 freestyle.
Naraoka capped the meet as she teamed with seniors Jones and Kendall Halfacre and Baldermann) for a time of 4:03.56 in the 400 freestyle relay.
Jones claimed the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 27.86 seconds, Paulson earned a win in the 100 butterfly — as she touched out teammate Ballou by .03 of a second with a time of 1:17.76 — and Halladay swam 6:10.28 to take the 500 freestyle.
Grigorian’s previous best score of the season was 173.35 points in the season opener against Cherry Creek, but she far surpassed that with a score of 223.50. The 5A state qualifying standard for six dives is 220.
Eaglecrest turns right around to compete in the Smoky Hill Invitational, which begins with diving at 5:30 p.m. Friday, followed by swimming on Saturday (9 a.m. prelims and 5 p.m. finals). The Raptors’ next dual comes at home on Jan. 21 against Littleton at 4:30 p.m.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
