Rampart and Cheyenne Mountain in good shape after 4A girls swimming prelims
THORNTON — Rampart wanted to establish itself as the Class 4A girls swimming favorite early. During the 200-medley relay, the first event during Friday’s preliminaries, the Rams set a meet record at one minute, 43.644 seconds.
Overall, the Rams have eight swimmers over five final events, which will be held on Saturday. It puts them in a good position to contend for the team title.
“The relay was definitely a highlight,” Rampart coach Dan Greene said. “That’s a pretty big deal for the girls and it got everyone fired up.”
The team of Catriona Clarke, Edenna Chen, Allana Clarke and Lindsey Immel set the mark and then each went on to lock up individual spots in the finals.
Catorina Clarke will swim for the 200-IM title while Allana Clarke and Immel will go for the 50-freestyle championship. Immel also qualified for the 100-freestyle, as did Chen. Overall, Rampart has a chance to make some serious noise when the 4A finals begin.
And it was all sparked with the relay.
“It was a great start to the meet,” Immel said. “I didn’t know we were going to go that fast and I was so surprised at the time, because saw all of them (celebrating) at the end and I realized we did it.”
Immel said the intent for the girls was to go for that record for prelims then just focus on winning the event, regardless of time, on Saturday.
Defending champion Cheyenne Mountain also fared well through prelims, putting swimmer in finals of every event except for the 50-freestyle.
With a deep roster that includes girls leftover from the 2017 championship team, coach Kate Doane likes where her team stands going into Saturday.
“Cat (Wright) is such a leader and she’ll help keep the momentum going,” Doane said. “She can keep that enthusiasm alive.”
Wright, the 2017 4A swimmer of the year, took first in three events last year. She is competing in four final events on Saturday.
The 4A dive preliminaries will be held Saturday morning as the afternoon session at the VMAC was reserved for the 3A state finals.
The finals for the 4A girls state swim meet will begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The pool doors will open for teams at 12:45 and on-site tickets will go on sale at 1:30.
