3A girls swimming: Evergreen’s talented depth claims 4-peat
THORNTON — Winning a fourth straight Class 3A girls swimming state title might have looked a little questionable for Evergreen on Saturday night at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center.
However, the Cougars knew a wave of teams points were coming in the final few events.
“We knew we were OK,” Evergreen coach Lisa Morrow said about the Cougars trailing Discovery Canyon through 9 of 12 events. “We are pretty strong in the back half in the fly, breast and backstroke.”
Evergreen overtook Discovery Canyon in the race for the team title after the 100 backstroke final. Sophomore Finley Anderson won her second individual title on the night with a time of 27.25 seconds. Freshman teammate Maya Patel placed seventh to rack up some valuable team points.
“We knew it was going to be close between us, Discovery Canyon and St. Mary’s,” said Anderson, who won the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. “There was a ton of pressure on all of us. I think it made us work harder and go faster.”
The Cougars cemented the team title in the 11th event of the night. Sophomore Riley Rains took second and junior Alyssa Cook placed fourth in the 100 breaststroke to give Evergreen 40 more team points.
Evergreen’s 400 freestyle relay team finished off the meet with a solid third-place finish. The team of senior Taylor Jacobson, Ackerman, Cook and Anderson finished the night in style.
“I think it was like a victory lap,” Anderson said of the 400 freestyle relay where Evergreen placed third to bump up its final team points to 422. “We pretty much knew we were going to win the team title. We just wanted to have fun and enjoy it.”
Discovery Canyon finished as the state-runner up with 358 points. St. Mary’s Academy took third with 264 points.
“We knew teams were gunning for us because teams want to knock us off our podium,” Anderson said. “It is really nice to have won.”
It was nice the way the Cougars started the meet. Anderson, Rains, Jacobson and Cook broke the 3A record in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:48.32.
“We knew coming into the meet we were really, really close to the 3A record,” Anderson said. “In the finals we all were super psyched up and wanting to start the meet off fast. That set us off on the right tone for the meet and I think really helped us.”
Getting off to such a great start probably decreased the pressure for Morrow. Last year Morrow was a volunteer assistant coach. With longtime coach Liz Hudd — led the Cougars to five state team title over her 21 years — stepping down to an assistant coach roll, Morrow was elevated to head coach this season.
“There was pressure as soon as they hired me,” Morrow said with a big smile. “They told me the pressure was on, but the girls did the work. They raced their hearts out today.”
Evergreen graduates just a few seniors and with the breakout state meet by Anderson, a fifth straight team title next year looks like a good possibility.
“I see more records falling,” Morrow said of Anderson’s bright future. “She is really strong and is such a great team player. She is a gracious winner. We are lucky to have her on our team.”
Anderson said that the backstroke has been her speciality, but the butterfly was a stroke she really started with early in her swim career.
“I have a lot of fun swimming both of those strokes,” Anderson said. “It was fun winning two individual state titles after not winning last year. I really felt like I broke through this year.”
