LITTLETON | On further review, the final race at Saturday’s Centennial “A” League Championship girls swim meet didn’t have the high stakes initially believed, but the meet still was filled with positives for Aurora area programs.
A scoring error on the diving competition from earlier in the day — in which the results was scored in reverse with most points going to the lowest finisher and least to the top finisher — ended up changing the final standings from what those following along with live scoring believed.
In the midst of the best season in school history, Cherokee Trail thought it had a chance to win the meet if it had beaten Cherry Creek in the meet-concluding 400 yard freestyle relay. The Bruins stacked their relay in the final race, however, and won it, while coach Kevin Chatham’s Cougars finished third. It turned out that the team race wasn’t as close originally thought and Cherokee Trail finished third for a second straight season behind Cherry Creek and host Arapahoe.
Still, it was an outstanding performance for the Cougars — who have designs on a top-five finish at the upcoming Class 5A state meet — who accrued 749 points without winning a single event.
Cherokee Trail finished in the top five in all three relay events and had a pair of two-event runners-up in senior Sarah Woren and junior Ava Zadigan, while senior Emme Metzmaker also had a second place finish to lead a slew of placers.
Woren had two league championships get away by a combined 0.4 of a second, as she got touched out by Grandview swimmers by 0.2 in both the 50 yard freestyle (by Amelia Brown) and 100 freestyle (by Keira Vail). Zadigan and Metzmaker tied for second place behind Grandview’s Kaitlyn Hafer in the 100 butterfly, while Zadigan came in only behind Brown in the 100 backstroke.
Metzmaker, junior Ella Drakulich and sophomores Bella Lane and Aria Clouse made two championship finals apiece for Cherokee Trail.
Led by a determined group of seniors, coach James Boone’s Grandview team tied with Cherry Creek for the most event championships with five on its way to a total of 717 points.
Brown won two Centennial League titles for the second straight season, as she repeated in the 50 freestyle, while she won the backstroke for the first time. Brown clocked a time of 24.08 seconds in the 50 (to Woren’s 24.10) and cruised to the backstroke title in 56.91.
Hafer nearly joined Brown as a two-event winner, as she claimed the 100 butterfly (with a time of 58.43 seconds) and was focused on the 100 breaststroke. Hafer, who had the top time in prelims, led the race from the middle of the pool, only to get touched out in one of the outside lanes by Cherry Creek’s Jenna Fenstrom, who arrived 0.16 of a second ahead of her.
Vail finished fourth in the 100 freestyle at the 2023 league meet, but her time of 52.59 seconds brought her to the wall just ahead of Woren and she also finished as the runner-up in the 200 freestyle.
Grandview’s other championship came in the 1-meter diving competition to begin the day, as junior Addison Campbell won her second straight league title with a score of 435.05 points. Senior Tanvi Jitta helped the Wolves feast on points in the event as she was third.
Freshmen Jasia Barnes, Teagan Boskovich and Makenna Dyk and junior Baylie Renner all made a championship final among a number of outstanding performances for Grandview, which grabbed second place in both freestyle relays and third in the 200 medley.
Fourth-place Smoky Hill got an outstanding performance from sophomore Cameryn Walkup, who earned championships in both distance freestyle events. Her day began with a two-second win in the 200 freestyle (which she swam in 1:53.21) and then she blew away the field in the 500, which she won in 5:10.20 with a gap of nearly 20 full seconds over runner-up Emme Andrews of Arapahoe.
Sophomore Mya Noffsinger grabbed the runner-up spot in the 200 individual medley and came in fourth in the 100 backstroke, while senior Tess Durrell made the championship finals in the same two events as Noffsinger and finished seventh in each. Sophomores Eve Niemann and Greta Smolenski also made a championship final for coach Scott Cohen’s Buffaloes, who also had two top-10 divers in eighth-place senior Christianna Duthie and freshman Lyla Bailey, who was 10th.
Eaglecrest repeated its sixth-place finish, but coach Jillian Fehringer’s Raptors had a two-event championship finalist in freshman Mila Huseby.
Huseby’s top performance came in the 200 individual medley when she dropped nearly a second and a half between prelims and finals with a 2:16.76 that brought her fourth place, but more importantly earned her a spot in the 5A state meet. Her time in the prelims of the 100 butterfly left her 0.18 off qualifying for state and she finished eighth place in the finals.
Huseby combined with fellow freshmen Xuan-Nguyen Do and Sadie Ballou and senior Shannon Beaulieu on a sixth-place 200 medley relay, while the 400 freestyle relay team of senior Lauren Menefee and juniors Kendall Halfacre, Alex Jones and Lin Naraoka swam a 3:55.99 to qualify for the state meet.
Overland’s points all came from the fourth-place finish of senior Maya Richman in the diving competition. Richman, who missed the league meet last season due to injury, earned a score of 377.55 points.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2024 CENTENNIAL “A” LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP GIRLS SWIM MEET
Feb. 2-3 at Arapahoe High School
Team scores: 1. Cherry Creek 854 points; 2. Arapahoe 778; 3. CHEROKEE TRAIL 749; 4. GRANDVIEW 717; 5. SMOKY HILL 540; 6. EAGLECREST 297; 7. Mullen 257; 8. OVERLAND 25
