Columbine girls swim and dive completely dominates at 5A Jeffco League championships

ARVADA — One Class 5A Jeffco League girls swim and dive championship clearly wasn’t nearly enough for Columbine.

After winning its first-ever conference championship last year, the Rebels couldn’t have been any more dominate Saturday at Meyers Pool in winning back-to-back league championships.

“It means everything to me,” said Columbine senior Emma Forbes of winning back-to-back league titles. “To me personally seeing this team grow has been great. It is an honor to be apart of this. Being able to go back-to-back league champs is awesome. It’s the greatest thing ever.”

Columbine racked up 751 team points. Remarkably, the Rebels took first place in every single one of the dozen individual events. Ralston Valley finished a distant second in the team standings with 571 points.

After all of the Columbine swimmers jumped into the pool to celebrate the Rebels’ second straight league title, Columbine coaches and for the second year in a row Columbine principal Scott Christy and athletic director Derek Holliday jumped in the pool fully clothed to celebrate.

“Tonight’s energy was awesome,” Columbine senior Rachel Ballard said. “It is just such a fun environment to be in.”

The Rebels’ 200-yard medley relay team — Ballard, Emma Forbes, Katie Forbes and Anna Hussell — got it all started winning the event by more than 5 seconds and just missing the 5A record that Columbine set last year.

Sophie Porter (200 and 500 freestyle), Ballard (200 IM and 100 backstroke), Reagan Horn (50 and 100 freestyle), Phoenix Rose (100 butterfly) and Katie Forbes (100 breaststroke) and Samantha Zakhem (dive) all won individual titles for the Rebels.

Emma Forbes, who signed back in November to swim for Ohio University, was named the 5A Jeffco Swimmer of the Year. Columbine was also given the Paul Davis Sportsmanship Award. Chatfield’s Ron Johns was named the 5A Jeffco Coach of the Year.

“It has been awesome to see a little more recognition come to the sport of swimming,” Ballard said of what Columbine has accomplished in the pool over the past two years. “It is a little more of an underground sport compared to football or basketball. It has been awesome to be able to grow with these girls and achieve so much with them.”

Ballard, Emma Forbes, Porter and Horn closed out the meet by winning the 400 relay by more than 12 seconds over Valor.

“It has been a heck of a journey and so much fun,” said Ballard, who also officially signed last week to swim at Brigham Young University. “We are looking to finish strong at state.”

The 5A state meet begins Tuesday, Feb. 7, with the diving preliminaries and finals at the VMAC in Thornton. The swimming prelims are scheduled for Thursday morning back the VMAC. Finals will begin at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, at VMAC.

“This year we have an amazing team and a lot of new state qualifiers,” Ballard said. “It is just going to be a fun meet at state. We’ll do our best and see what happens.”

Columbine placed 11th in the team standings last year. The expectations are much higher heading into next week.

“This year we have a lot of fast swimmers. I don’t think Columbine has ever had this many,” Emma Forbes said of the Rebels’ talented depth. “We have 10 of 11 girls that have qualified for state and all of us can finish top-20 in everything. This year we have a better chance of placing top-5.”