4A State Championship: Ending the Swim Season with a Bang
February 17, 2016
The Lady Stangs have proven time and time again that they are a team who has what it takes to compete amongst the best in the state. This weekend was the most impressive example of that. The state meet is the culmination of the whole season and teams bring everything they have. This weekend the Manitou girls swim team competed at the 4A colorado state championship and ended in fourth place. This is incredible impressive for multiple reasons. The first of which is the number of teams in the 4A classification we were up against. The second is that many of these schools have improved resources and some private schools even have the ability to recruit swimmers. And the final reason is we aren’t even a 4A team but we are competing with and beating many 4A teams. Manitou’s girls team is technically a 3A team, however, there is no 3A state championship so we compete amount many larger schools.
We had girls make it back to the second day in eight out of eleven swim events. We had multiple girls place in different events. The 200 medley relay set a pool record the first day that they broke again the second day, and ended up placing second in the event during finals. Veronica Morin (12) placed third overall in the 50 free, Emily Dolloff-Holt (11) placed third in the 100 fly, and Samantha White (12) placed second in the 100 breaststroke. All of the events were incredibly exciting and the Manitou girls did very well in everything they swam, however, the most exciting event was the 200 yard free relay. The Manitou team was seated second in the race behind Valor Christian. During the whole race, Valor and Manitou were neck and neck until Manitou’s last swimmer in the race Veronica Morin (12) got in the water. Her and the swimmer from Valor were right next to each other until Veronica (12) cam into the turn and left the wall ahead of Valor. We took first in the event with Valor Christian following close behind. We even got close to the pool record for the event.
Not only was this meet packed full of amazing swims for the Manitou girls, but it was the last high school meet for many of our beloved senior swimmers. Swimmers Veronica Morin (12), Samantha White (12), Carrie Linhart (12), and Emily Vann (12) will all be graduating this year and will be missed dearly. We also have some swimmers who are not seniors and will not be able to return next year such as Kethrys Buffa (11) and Julia Shashok (9) who both do not attend Manitou High but are valued members of the team. In conclusion, this meet was the best possible way to end a spectacular season for Manitou girls swim team.
