The Salida High School girls’ swim team finished second of 14 schools, with 196 points, over the weekend at the Hornet Invitational in Pueblo.
“The Hornet meet is always a great meet for our team, but this year our girls outdid themselves,” head coach Wendy Gorie said. “We could not have asked for a better performance. Every girl swam incredibly well. We’re so proud of them and are looking forward to finishing out the last half of our season.”
Pueblo County High School won the meet with 252 points, while Gunnison High School finished third.
Gorie said one of the highlights of the meet was that every girl on the team swam seasonal best times in every event they swam, and most swam lifetime personal best times.
Several girls also qualified for the state tournament, including:
• 200-meter individual medley relay: senior Paige Mishmash, senior Ember Hill, sophomore Shae Merchant and sophomore Cece Lengerich.
• 200-meter individual medley: Hill and junior Tayla Young.
• 50-meter freestyle: Merchant, while sophomore Kasey Glaser missed the state cut by 0.28 second and Mishmash missed the state cut by 0.56 second.
• 100-meter freestyle: Merchant.
• 500-meter freestyle: Lengerich.
• 200-meter freestyle relay: Mishmash, freshman Melissa Lang, junior Tayla Young and Glaser.
• 100-meter backstroke: Mishmash.
• 100-meter breastroke: Hill, Lengerich and Young.
• 400-meter freestyle relay: Lengerich, Young, Hill and Merchant.
Some of the other highlights of the match, Gorie said, were Mishmash’a cutting 4 seconds off her time in the 100-meter backstroke to make the state qualification and Merchant scoring lifetime best times in her 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle qualifying races after being sick with the flu for more than a month,
Lengerich had a seasonal best in her 500-meter freestyle race and a lifetime best in her 100-meter breastroke, while sophomore Karli Bainbridge cut 10 seconds for a lifetime best in her 200-meter freestyle.
Freshman MJ Kononen cut 1 second in her 50-meter freestyle for a lifetime best, sophomore Elle Farnsworth cut 0.5 second in her 100-meter fly for a lifetime best, and freshman Brenna Chariton cut 2 seconds in her 200-meter individual medley for a new lifetime best.
The team is scheduled to compete again at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Manitou Springs against multiple schools.
