Girls Swimming & Diving: Broomfield Claims First-Ever State Title
By Alissa Noe
Photo: Alissa Noe
THORNTON — By the time that Broomfield’s 400-yard freestyle relay team made it to the blocks at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center, the Eagles already had the Class 4A team state championship in the bag.
Before the race began, they led Golden, which sat in second place at the time, by 82 points. Broomfield’s crown in that relay, with a time of 3:33.92 and a jaw-dropping margin of 5.26 seconds, tied Friday night’s efforts up with a perfect little bow.
The Eagles won the meet with 367 total points for their first-ever team title in girls swimming. Cheyenne Mountain, in second, had 264 points, while Golden took third with 241 points.
“It feels so amazing,” senior Ellie Foulke said. “It was kind of our whole goal for the past four years, and to finally end it on senior year and get first, it just feels so good. We knew it was something we could achieve, and we all did as a team and put our minds to it.”
Foulke and Ridley Hagerman, for their parts, were sights to behold.
Hagerman began her day with a win in the 200 medley relay (alongside Karlie Chandra, Kamryn Wimmer and Avery Weihing) and a time of 1 minute, 50.28 seconds, before she went on to smash the competition in the 500 freestyle relay with a 4:53.03. Foulke, who finished second in the event, clocked in at 5:00.58, after earlier winning the 200 IM (2:04.99).
Foulke and Hagerman, with Marbury Wherry and Myra Wherry, capped everything off with gold in the 400 free relay.
“I’ve been working on the 500 free, it feels like, since freshman year,” Hagerman said. “It’s really exciting to win that one. I’m happy with the 200 free. I wanted to go sub 1:50, but I’m happy with it. I didn’t expect that out of our relays at all. I didn’t expect to do that with our relays. It was really fun to do that, and especially with our 200 (medley) and our 400 free is always fun.”
That pernicious pair, along with the 17 other seniors on the roster, helped make it all possible. Broomfield head coach Emily Austin knew that they could rise all the way to the top this year before the season even began.
“How many seniors do we have? We have so many,” she said. “They’re not all here today, but they’re what did this. We knew it was always possible from Day 1 when they were freshmen, so it’s full circle. It’s beautiful.
“I knew that we brought everybody back from last year who scored individual points. Nobody else did that. Everybody else graduated, kids. I mean, you always get new freshmen and everything, but I had a feeling.”
Lewis-Palmer’s Grace Perry wrapped up the championship with a 4A meet record, two individual titles and a relay championship, touching first in the 200 free in 1:48.18 and the 100 fly in a 4A meet-record time of 53.89. She also anchored a relay team of Bryn Baker, Abigail Wallace and Riley Vick to gold in the 200 free relay (1:38.93).
Other individual champions included Mullen’s Natalie Bradac in the 50 free (23.88), Golden’s Elsa Sung in the 100 free (51.81), Ponderosa’s Alexx Bergen in the 100 back (57.07) and Monarch’s Audrey Shambo – who won her third-straight state title in the 100 breast with a time of 1:03.92.
Yesterday, Windsor’s Reagan Annable set a new meet record by winning the diving championship with a score of 588.20.
Top-10 Team Scores
1. Broomfield – 367
2. Cheyenne Mountain – 264
3. Golden – 241
4. Lewis-Palmer – 216
5. Centaurus – 215
6. Monarch – 205
7. Loveland – 197
8. Littleton – 189
9. Rampart – 161
10. Ponderosa – 159
