THORNTON | A calendar shift that pushed the Class 5A girls state swim meet back had an effect, but Aurora area teams still put on a pretty good show in the Feb. 18 finals at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center.
A 10-day gap between the end of league championship meets and the state meet due to a rotation of the three state meets held at the same venue gave teams more rest, but might have taken some of the competitive edge off as not a single state record went down.
As far as results, it didn’t slow Cherry Creek, which won its sixth straight state title with an 144-point margin for the second straight season. This time, however, it didn’t come over Regis Jesuit, which had a three-year streak of runner-up finishes come to an end with a surprising perfromance from Fairview.
Coach Nick Frasersmith’s Raiders — who finished 37 points in the wake of the Knights — got a tremendous amount of scoring from a remarkable freshman class, which saw four frosh earn a combined six consolation and championship swims and contribute to three fourth-place relay teams.
“We had a lot of young kids out there and it was good for those swimmers to get that experience,” Frasersmith said. “I think a lot of them were a little bit more nervous than a regular high end club meet because there’s a whole different focus when swimming for a team and with all the people in the stands cheering. It adds a different nervousness, but it was a great learning experience.”
Leading the way among Regis Jesuit’s freshmen was Aria Thomas, who posted a third-place finish in the 200 yard individual medley and fourth place in the 100 butterfly. She made significant jumps in each, as she leaped 10 spots from pre-meet seeding in the IM and four spots in the butterfly, while she also swam legs of the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
First-year scorers individually also included Vivian Hutcheson in two events, plus Bella Aguirre and Zoe Larson, while Natalie Worden swam on the 200 medley relay.
Regis Jesuit certainly had veteran contributions, as senior Lexi Stramel ended an outstanding career with two championship finals appearances. She tied for sixth in the 500 freestyle and seventh in the 200 freestyle while swimming on both freestyle relay teams, while she was joined as a two-event championship finalist by junior Ava Terella (sixth in 100 backstroke and seventh in 200 freestyle) and sophomore Elsa Osborne (fourth in 50 freestyle and seventh in 100 freestyle).
While the Raiders improved, they weren’t able to overcome the gains made by Fairview, which had a state champion in Lexi Byrn and moved up nearly double-digit spots in all three relays from pre-meet seeding.
“Fairview really stepped up and had a really good meet through and through,” Frasersmith said. “We gained some points prelims to final, but they gained more than us.”
While Regis Jesuit’s place in the standings dipped from a year ago, Smoky Hill made a significant climb.
Junior Lyla Bailey got coach Scott Cohen’s Buffaloes off to a great start with a seventh-place finish in the morning diving competition (see story, here). She was the last diver cut before the final round last season, but she made it easily this season (the only one of the Aurora area’s nine state qualifiers to do so) and became the first Smoky Hill diver to score since her coach — Jaclyn Santiago — in 2019.
It was the program’s highest finish on the diving podium since Paige Gaydos took sixth in 2009.
Boosted by those points before entering the water for swimming, the Buffaloes — already coming off its best league championship performance in 15 years — finished with 147 points to come in seventh, which was its highest position since 2011 when it was sixth. It was also the most points scored by the Buffaloes in at least that long.
A large share came from the senior duo of Mya Noffsinger and Cameryn Walkup, who made two championship finals apiece individually.
Noffsinger had the highest finishes of all, as she secured fifth place in both the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard backstroke, while Walkup grabbed ninth in the 200 and 500 freestyles.
In their last time in the state pool, Noffsinger and Walkup teamed with fellow senior Greta Smolenski and junior Caroline Kaiser — a consolation finalists in two events — for an eighth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay.
In its first season under coach Kelly Mullin, Grandview tied for ninth on the strength of three placing relays — including two that made the championship finals — plus the contributions of the individual duo of junior Makenna Dyk and sophomore Paige Gust.
Dyk, Gust, senior Emma Busta and freshman Talia Burleson produced the Aurora area’s best result and tops for its team as well in the 200 freestyle relay with a third-place finish.
The Wolves were two seconds faster in prelims than they had been all season and then dropped another second in the finals to come in just 0.01 of a second behind second-place Arapahoe.
Dyk made the championship finals in both sprint freestyles, topped by a fifth-place showing in the 50 free and then eight in the 100 free, while Gust made a huge climb in the 100 butterfly from 21st in pre-meet seeding to 12th to go with a ninth-place finish in the 50 freestyle.
Cherokee Trail had hopes of a first state champion, but junior Natalie Daum’s quest to make history came up a little bit short in her first season with the program.
Daum had the top seed in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.16) going into the meet and was fastest in prelims (1:02.82), but a full second improvement by Cherry Creek’s Sydney Fernstrom in the finals brought her to the wall nearly a second before Daum, who was also fourth in the 200 IM.
Senior Aria Clouse scored in two consolation finals to support for coach Kipp Meeks’ Cougars, who also scored in all three relays.
The 200 medley relay team of Daum, fellow juniors Grace Peterson and Emir Saliger and senior Lily Rosh swam faster in the finals of the state meet than they had in the season, but slipped a few spots from pre-meet seeding to finish seventh.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports