4A girls swimming: Heritage dominant in defense of 4A team championship
THORNTON – The Heritage girls swim and dive team was the clear favorite to with the Class 4A state championship, but the way the Eagles dominated the field was something else entirely.
On Friday night at Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center, the Eagles took home gold in six of 12 total events to score an incredible 636 team points and claim the coveted team trophy for the second year in a row. The score was more than double next highest-scoring team and 140.5 more than last season’s championship score.
“This team is a family,” Eagles sophomore Kenzie Myco said. “I love being on this team. They’re so supportive and we all swim for each other. We were so in the zone and just having fun. Everything was just the way we wanted it.”
Windsor finished runner-up with 307 team points and Pine Creek was third with 299.5. Cheyenne Mountain was fourth with 240 points and Niwot was third with 238.5.
Heritage junior Mary Macauley won the 100 butterfly with a time of 54.27 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 54.86. Myco won the 100 freestyle in 51.58.
The Eagles also swept the relays.
Heritage (Macaulay, Aislyn Barnett, Inge Ehm and Amaia Sherman) won the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:44.27. The Eagles (Myco, Sherman, Sophia Capp and Elise Ramsden) swam a 1:35.43 to win the 200 freestyle relay. The Eagles capped off the meet with a time of 3:27.95 and victory in the 400 freestyle relay.
“We have a lot of top-end kids but really, the kids who came in seeded third and fourth stepped up and they raced as hard as anybody,” Heritage head coach Tom Byorick said. “I was really impressed with the energy they brought tonight. A lot of kids had best times yesterday and then again today. That’s tough to do and I’m really proud of them for that.
“We came here and competed really, really well. That’s what every coach wants.”
Cheyenne Mountain’s Caroline Bricker broke her own 4A state meet record in the 200 IM, setting the new classification standard mark at 1:59.37.
Pine Creek freshman Madison Mintenko won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:49.41 and the 500 freestyle in 4:58.59 to claim two titles in her state meet debut.
Niwot’s Mary Codevilla, who was voted 4A Swimmer of the Year, set a 4A meet record during preliminaries on Thursday and broke the record again on Friday with a time of 1:00.84. She also posted a time of 23.07 to win the 50 freestyle.
“There were three big names coming in and they were Madison Mintenko, Caroline Bricker and Mary Codevilla,” Byorick said. “All three of those kids are just top-notch athletes and class people.”
Windsor’s Mandy Schnedier was voted 4A Coach of the Year.
Friday’s team championship was the second all-time for Heritage.
