Forty-seven individuals and 15 relays teams from six Aurora programs head to the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center for the Class 5A girls state swim meet.
The final ranks for the Feb. 6-7 meet were solidified by performances at “A” League championship meets over the past weekend, as Cherokee Trail, Eaglecrest, Grandview, Overland and Smoky Hill competed in the Centennial League meet, Regis Jesuit swam in the Continental League meet and Hinkley played host to the City League meet that also included Rangeview, Gateway and Aurora Central.
Regis Jesuit — last season’s 5A runner-up — again expects to be in the hunt for hardware as coach Nick Frasersmith’s team features an area-best 17 individual swimmers and divers and a full compliment of relays. The Raiders come in off a seventh-place showing in the Continental “A” League meet in which very few of their top line swimmers were in the water.
In pre-meet psyche sheets put out Feb. 3 by the Colorado High School Activities Association, Regis Jesuit goes into the prelims (scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 6, which follows the full diving competition at 10 a.m.; swim finals are slated for 5:15 p.m. Feb. 7) with major point potential.
The Raiders are seeded in the top three in all three relays, which will be a boost as they seek to catch rival and defending state champion Cherry Creek.
Leading the way individually is sophomore Natalie Daum, who enters the meet as the No. 1 seed in both the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard breaststroke. Daum’s top time of 2 minutes, 5.27 seconds, in the individual medley puts her only slightly in front of Valor Christian’s Elliana Wiesen, while her 1:03.31 in the breaststroke is more than a second faster than Boulder’s Hazel Huilman (1:04.42).
Fellow sophomore Ava Terella is headed for high steps on the medal podium if she swims up to her seeding in the 100 butterfly (third) and 100 backstroke (fifth). Juniors Lexi Stramel and Jamie Young are seeded to make the championship final (top 10) in at least one event, while a variety of others are just on the cusp of making the championship finals in a variety of other events.
Grandview and Cherokee Trail — which finished third and fourth, respectively — at the Centennial “A” League Championships, both head into the state meet with 10 individuals and three relay teams apiece.
The Wolves had a pair of league champions and both — senior diver Addison Campbell and sophomore Makenna Dyk — look to follow up those performances on a bigger scale at state. Campbell not only won her second straight Centennial League crown on the diving board, but she did so with a score that was 90 points higher than in 2024. She finished fourth in 5A as a sophomore and ninth as a junior and 11th as a freshman.
Dyk, meanwhile, captured a league title in the 50 yard freestyle and goes into state seeded third in the event (with a top time of 23.95 seconds), while she is also sixth in the 100 freestyle.
Campbell and Dyk are the lone two individual point scorers to return from last season’s sixth-place state squad for coach James Boone’s Wolves, who are seeded fourth in the 200 yard freestyle relay to boot.
Dalton Tainter-Paar has taken over at Cherokee Trail, which finished ninth at last season’s state meet, and has a number of returning state scorers in the lineup. Leading the way for the Cougars is senior Ava Zadigian, who claimed the Centennial “A” League title in the 100 yard backstroke and sits third in the seeding going into state with her top time of 57.32 seconds.
Fellow senior Ella Drakulich finished 10th in the 200 yard individual medley at last season’s state meet and she is seeded seventh in the same event going into her final state championship. Cherokee Trail also has four sophomores, two juniors and a freshman qualified and has the potential to score in all three relays.
Coach Scott Cohen’s Smoky Hill team has a host of seven individuals qualified for state and that group includes two swimmers who scored in two individual events apiece last season at state in juniors Cameryn Walkup and Mya Noffsinger.
Walkup (who was voted the Centennial League Swimmer of the Year) has built quite a resume in two seasons thus far and she claimed two Centennial “A” League championships for a second straight season. She repeated in the 500 yard freestyle and owns a season-best time of 5:07.89, which puts her as the fourth seed in the event at state, while she is one place higher in the 200 yard freestyle with a 1:53.66.
Noffsinger, meanwhile, scored in the 200 yard individual medley and backstroke last season at state and is in position to repeat that feat, as she is seeded No. 5 in the IM and 12th in the backstroke. Sophomore Caroline Kaiser could join the scoring ranks for Smoky Hill if she holds both of her seeding positions and the Buffaloes hold top-15 seeds in all three relays to boot.
Eaglecrest has taken a step forward this season and will be represented by two individuals and three relay teams at the state meet. Coach Jillian Fehringer’s Raptors haven’t scored a point at the state meet since back in 2021 (when diver Caitie Rodocker placed third) and they will seek to break that drought with senior Lin Naraoka in the pool and junior Lily Grigorian on the diving board.
Eaglecrest would need to move up six spots in both the 200 yard medley and 400 yard freestyle relays in order to make a consolation final.
Rangeview has a lone individual qualifier in senior Hailey McDonald, who has made it in diving. Diving last put the Raiders on the scoreboard at the state meet in 2019 — when Sarah Mortenson placed 13th — and McDonald (who is coached by Mortenson) could make it happen again. She is a four-time Aurora Public Schools champion and added a City League crown this season with a score of 405.55 points.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
