An outstanding season in pools around Aurora during the 2023-24 girls swimming season is reflected in the makeup of the Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Swim Team.
The city’s top performers include a significant portion of the Regis Jesuit team that had the Class 5A state championship slip away on the final event of the meet at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center (see story, here), while Cherokee Trail, Grandview and Smoky Hill also earned representation.
Coach Nick Frasersmith’s Raiders jockeyed with rival Cherry Creek with the state title at stake and had the lead going into the final race — the 400 yard freestyle relay — with a lot of help from senior Charlotte Burnham, who was chosen by coaches as the 5A Swimmer of the Year.
Burnham won the only event state championship for the city when she repeated as winner of the 100 yard breaststroke. The Cal-Berkeley recruit torched the field with an Automatic All-American time of 1 minute, 1.90 seconds, to push Regis Jesuit ahead of the Bruins going into the final event. Burnham was the top seed going into the event, remained that way through the prelims and finished significantly in front of runner-up Abby Lehmkuhler of Rocky Mountain in the finals.
Earlier, Burnham finished as the runner-up in the 50 freestyle with an Automatic All-American time of 23.04 seconds in an event she didn’t swim at state the previous season. She came into state as the No. 4 seed in the event, took the top seed into the finals and finished only behind Fossil Ridge’s Ella Gaca Thiele, who dropped nearly half of a second between the prelims and finals to win in 22.98.
Burnham also anchored a team with fellow senior Tierney Kohl (backstroke) along with freshmen Natalie Daum (backstroke) and Ava Terella (butterfly) on a meet-opening 200 yard medley relay team that earned top city honors as the state runner-up to Cherry Creek. The Raiders were the third seed coming into the meet, posted the second-best time in the prelims and recorded a season-best and Automatic All-American time of 1 minute, 42.81 seconds, in the final to come in behind the Bruins and easily ahead of third-place Fairview.
To conclude the meet, Burnham (on an immediate turnaround from the breaststroke) put everything she had into the anchor leg of the 400 yard freestyle relay — following senior Amelia Marsicek, junior Elise Kittleson and Terella — but the Raiders’ fourth-place finish allowed Cherry Creek to win by three points. The Regis Jesuit team had an All-American Consideration time of 3:29.93 in the finals that was a season-best by four seconds and shaved six seconds off its prelim time, but Heritage (3:29.20) and Fairview (3:29.62) also dropped time to stay in front of the Raiders.
Daum and Terella were very impactful in their first varsity seasons and each earned an individual All-Aurora spot in addition to relay work.
Daum was the city’s top performer at state in the 200 yard individual medley, as she posted a season-best time of 2:08.06 in the championship heat to finish sixth after she came into the meet as the No. 5 seed. Daum was all-Aurora second teamer in the 100 backstroke as well. Terella, meanwhile, led the way among those from local programs in the 100 butterfly with a fourth-place result that came with a time of 56.12 seconds that set her best mark for the season.
The Raiders entered the final day with a nice lead thanks to the results of the 1-meter diving competition, which saw senior Maya Kriz earn the All-Aurora spot in the event. Kriz racked up a total of 503.25 points to finish as the state runner-up by just over three points after she entered the final three dives with a scant 0.15-point edge over eventual winner Sydney Oveson of Fossil Ridge.
Kriz was the Continental “A” League runner-up the previous week as she finished just behind senior teammate Sarah Mann, who was third at state as part of Regis Jesuit’s powerful punch on the diving board.
Grandview finished sixth in the 5A standings with a big push from its senior group (see story, here), which appears in part on the All-Aurora team.
Senior Keira Vail ended her prep career on a high note, as the San Jose State recruit and Hoyt Brawner Award nominee laid claim to top city honors in the 100 yard freestyle.
Seeded seventh going into state, Vail — who won the Centennial “A” League title the previous week — moved up a spot to sixth in prelims and recorded a season-best time of 51.65 in the finals to grab fifth place. She was also an All-Aurora second team performer in the 50 freestyle.
Vail and fellow senior Amelia Brown were key parts of the 200 yard freestyle relay team that earned All-Aurora honors.
The senior duo combined with precocious freshmen Makenna Dyk and Jasia Barnes on a unit that finished in third place with an Automatic All-American and season-best time of 1:34.93 for coach James Boone’s Wolves. The Grandview team moved up from the third seed coming into state with a second in prelims, then took third after Cherry Creek improved by nearly two seconds to jump from third to first with Fossil Ridge second.
Cherokee Trail secured its best-ever finish at the state meet as it ended up in ninth with a lot of top performances coming for coach Kevin Chatham’s group (see story, here). The lone individual to land All-Aurora honors, however, was junior Ava Zadigian.
Zadigan — who was able to compete at the varsity level after she missed last season due to a transfer from Grandview — edged Daum by 0.11 of a second for city honors in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.11 seconds that put her fourth with Daum fifth. Zadigan came into the meet seeded eighth, moved up to fourth with a season-best time of 56.67 and maintained that spot in the final.
Scott Cohen returned as head coach at Smoky Hill, which went on to earn 52 more points at the state meet than it had the previous season (see story, here). A lot of that came with the outstanding individual and relay performances of a growing group of young swimmers.
The Buffaloes’ top individual was sophomore Cameryn Walkup, who owns bragging rights in the city in both distance freestyle events, the 200 and 500 yard freestyles.
Walkup made the championship finals in both of them, as she was seeded to do coming into the meet after she won crowns in both at the Centennial “A” League meet the previous week. Her highest finals finish came in the 200 when she finished fifth — exactly on her seeding — though her time of 1:53.24 wasn’t a season-best, as she swam 1:53 in the prelims and also had that time during the season.
In the 500 freestyle, Walkup touched the wall in the finals in 5:04.64, which came with a sixth-place award. It was slightly off her season-best time of 5:04.34 from the prelims.
SECOND TEAM: The All-Aurora second team had plenty of notables as well. For Regis Jesuit, sophomore Lexi Stramel was a championship finalist in both the 200 and 500 freestyles, while Daum, Kohl and senior Emme Penry earned the nods, as did the 200 freestyle relay team of Kohl, Stramel, Kittleson and sophomore Samantha Hahn. Grandview’s all-senior relay team of Brown, Vail, Kaitlyn Hafer and Peyton Belcher made the second team in the 200 medley relay, while Hafer grabbed honors in the 100 breaststroke and Vail in the 50 freestyle. Cherokee Trail’s second team performers came in the 100 freestyle for senior Sarah Woren, who also combined with fellow senior Emme Metzmaker, junior Olivia Jisa and sophomore Bella Lane on the 400 freestyle relay.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2023-24 AURORA SENTINEL ALL-AURORA GIRLS SWIM TEAM
FIRST TEAM
200 yard medley relay — Natalie Daum, fr., Tierney Kohl, sr., Ava Terella, fr. and Charlotte Burnham, sr., Regis Jesuit
200 yard freestyle — Cameryn Walkup, soph., Smoky Hill
200 yard individual medley — Natalie Daum, fr., Regis Jesuit
50 yard freestyle — Charlotte Burnham, sr., Regis Jesuit
1-meter diving — Maya Kriz, sr., Regis Jesuit
100 yard butterfly — Ava Terella, fr., Regis Jesuit
100 yard freestyle — Keira Vail, sr., Grandview
500 yard freestyle — Cameryn Walkup, soph., Smoky Hill
200 yard freestyle relay — Makenna Dyk, fr., Keira Vail, sr., Jasia Barnes, fr. and Amelia Brown, sr., Grandview
100 yard backstroke — Ava Zadigian, jr., Cherokee Trail
100 yard breaststroke — Charlotte Burnham, sr., Regis Jesuit*
400 yard freestyle — Elise Kittleson, jr., Ava Terella, fr., Amelia Marsicek, sr. and Charlotte Burnham, sr., Regis Jesuit
* — State champion
— Full 2023-24 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Swim Team, here