Lady Stangs Out-Perform Competitors at League

After landslide league championship, state qualifiers get ready for Denver

Samantha White (12) and Greg Shaw (12), who is one of our captains, celebrate directly after Manitou’s win is announced.

Kieran Lynch, Swim Correspondent
February 9, 2016

This weekend the Lady Stangs competed at the Tri-Peaks League Championships. This championship meet was very important to many of the Mustangs. After a second place league finish in 2015, the Mustangs landslide victory on Friday was especially sweet.

Manitou placed first with a score of 450. They were ahead of Kent Denver who finished with a score of 328.

These scores do not necessarily show how exciting the league meet was. Because this event was regional it consisted of teams that have been competing against each other all season. Therefore relationships and rivalries have developed pushing the swimmers to compete at their highest level. By the end of the two days spectators and competitors alike were drained and hoarse from all the excitement.

The Manitou girls took first place in six out of eleven events. The meet was not only a success for the team as a whole but many individual swimmers.

The 200 medley relay team of Kethrys Buffa (11), Samantha White (12), Emily Dolloff-Holt (11), Veronica Morin (12) got the League meet record with a time of 1:46.96.

Another one of our relay teams took a League meet record for the 200 free relay. The freestyle relay had swimmers Sydney Dolloff-Holt (9), Emily Dolloff-Holt (11), Samantha White (12), Veronica Morin (12) and their final time was 1:39.38, about six seconds faster than Kent Denver’s A team.

The final record was broken by Samantha White (12) who got a new MSHS school record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:06.17.

Now the team moves on to their final week of practices and serious preparation for States. The State meet is held in Thornton and 20 teams from all around Colorado will be at the top of their game. The Manitou Lady Stangs are currently ranked fourth in the 4A category and we are only a few points away from third place.

In order to be on the State team swimmers need to have hit a certain time in an individual event or on a relay team. The times are predetermined and most athletes spend the whole season working towards them. Each athlete is allowed to compete in no more than 5 events and Coach Roy Chaney makes the final decision about the makeup of the state team.

The meet covers two days. On Friday 2/12/16 all qualified swimmers will compete in the prelims. Then on Saturday 2/13/16 the top 16 competitors (and relay teams) in each event swim their events again for the finals. These finals will determine our state champions.

FOLLOWING IS THE STATE QUALIFIERS FOR MANITOU

200 Medley Relay Team: