AURORA | The Smoky Hill girls swim team finished trophy-less at its annual Smoky Hill Invitational for the first time since 2014, but came away with a pair of event titles at the end of a very fast meet.
Juniors Maggie Robben and Blythe Iverson won championships in the 100 yard breaststroke and 500 yard freestyle, respectively, but coach Scott Cohen’s Buffaloes and the rest of the field had trouble keeping up with easy winner Heritage and runner-up Chatfield at the 28th annual meet.
Led by Robben and Iversen, who each posted a pair of top-four results in their individual events, Smoky Hill gathered 327 points to finish just five points behind Legend for third place. With just three event wins, Heritage managed to pile up 496.5 points to win by the title by a comfortable margin over Chatfield and its 424.
Smoky Hill hadn’t finished outside of the top two at its own invitational since a third-place result in 2014, but couldn’t quite match the depth of the teams in front of it, especially Heritage and Chatfield.
The Buffaloes’ top-end performers did quite well, however.
Robben was denied a third-straight Smoky Hill Invitational championship in the 200 yard individual medley early in the finals when Heritage sophomore Anna Shaw shaved more than eight seconds off her prelim time to win the race, but she bounced back to defend her 100 breaststroke title.
The time of 1 minute, 5.52 seconds, that brought Robben to the wall was more than a second faster than her winning time of 1:06.91 from 2018 and gave her a good cushion over runner-up Ashlee Urroz of Heritage. The time set a school record and was just .01 of a second off the meet record of 1:05.51 set in 2014 by Chaparral grad Kaylee Gassen.
Iverson got her feet wet at the meet with a fourth-place finish in the 200 yard freestyle in the first portion of the meet, then cruised to a nearly 15-second victory in the 500. Iverson followed a 5:22.31 in the prelims with a 5:18.89 in the final.
Robben and Iverson combined with sophomore Kristina Domashevich (a top-five placer in two individual events as well) and junior Katie Power on a runner-up finish in the 200 medley relay, the best relay result on the day for Smoky Hill.
Senior diver Jaclyn Santiago placed fourth for the Buffaloes as well, while freshman Annelise Thomas contributed a third-place finish in the 200 IM and won the consolation final of the 100 butterfly.
Among the other local teams, Cherokee Trail placed sixth and Eaglecrest finished 12th in the team standings. The Cougars racked up 274.5 points, while the Raptors ended with 74 points to their credit.
Meet records were established in 100 yard freestyle by Shaw and in the 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays by Chatfield.
Shaw clocked a time of 51.66 seconds to better the 52.33 dropped by Heritage’s Kylie Andrews in 2015, while Kathryn Shanley, Meghan Mulvihill and Avery Turney contributed to both of the Chargers’ meet-record setting relays along with Ella Hurley (200 free) and Abigail Storm (400 free).
Chatfield recorded a time of 1:38.69 in the 200 free relay to surpass the 1:39.10 established by Chaparral in 2016, while the 3:33.80 in the 400 free relay took down the previous record of 3:37.11 set just a year earlier by Heritage.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or [email protected] Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Sentinel Prep Sports
2019 SMOKY HILL INVITATIONAL GIRLS SWIM MEET
Team scores and top 12 individual placers for Smoky Hill at the 2019 Smoky Hill Invitational girls swim meet:
Team scores: 1. Heritage 496.5 points; 2. Chatfield 424; 3. Legend 332; 4. SMOKY HILL 327; 5. Mullen 281; 6. CHEROKEE TRAIL 274.5; 7. Chaparral 209.5; 8. Douglas County 160; 9. George Washington 141; 10. Ponderosa 98.5; 11. Liberty 94; 12. EAGLECREST 74; 13. SMOKY HILL GREEN 64; 14. Denver South 55; 15. SMOKY HILL RED 28
SMOKY HILL’S SMOKY HILL INVITATIONAL PLACERS
Smoky Hill: Individuals — Kristina Domashevich (5th, 100 yard butterfly/5th, 100 yard backstroke); Blythe Iverson (champion, 500 yard freestyle/4th, 200 yard freestyle); Katie Power (9th, 100 yard freestyle/10th, 100 yard breaststroke); Maggie Robben (champion, 100 yard breaststroke/2nd, 200 yard individual medley); Kelly Saindon (10th, 100 yard butterfly); Jaclyn Santiago (4th, 1-meter diving); Annelise Thomas (3rd, 200 yard individual medley/7th, 100 yard butterfly); Relays — 200 yard medley (Kristina Domashevich, Maggie Robben, Annelise Thomas, Katie Power), 2nd; 200 yard freestyle (Kelly Saindon, Gabriella Goris, Kendall Bergstrom, Blythe Iverson), 8th; 400 yard freestyle (Kristina Domashevich, Annelise Thomas, Katie Power, Maggie Robben), 3rd
Smoky Hill Green: Relays – 200 yard medley (Gabriella Goris, Korin Mogler, Kelly Saindon, Blythe Iverson), 8th; 200 yard freestyle (Jessiy Selby, Piper Neely, Katelyn Vann, Grace Jones), 12th; 400 yard freestyle (Jessiy Selby, Piper Neely, Katelyn Vann, Grace Jones), 11th
— Full 2019 Smoky Hill Invitational girls swim meet results, here
