The Manitou Springs swim team narrowly won the League meet for the first time in the history of program, with characteristically strong swimming from freshmen Veronica Morin and Sam White.

The meet was held at Colorado College, where nine teams spent Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 competing in 12 events. The Mustangs came out on top over Colorado Academy by only 11.5 points, with the entire meet coming down to the 12th event.

For Manitou, both days of the meet were tense. After the fifth event, the Mustangs were 20 points out of first and sitting in third place.

However, as captain Kailah Buchanan describes, there were some initial feelings of distress after the Mustangs’ first place finish in the 200 medley was disqualified, costing them at least 20 points.

“There was still a chance that we could win, but it didn’t look good at that point,” said Buchanan.

Manitou managed to rebound, and just before the 12th and final event found out that they were tied with Colorado Academy.

The last event was the 400 freestyle relay, and swimming for the Mustangs were captain Hannah Linhart, Kelsey Siebel, White and Morin. They managed to finish second in the race, but because they placed ahead 0f Colorado Academy, won the meet.

Morin broke the all-time Leagues records in both the 50 and 100 freestyle races.

Manitou will be sending about 16 swimmers to State, which is over half of the team. There is no 3A State for swim, so the Mustangs will have to compete against 4A teams.

Both Morin and White will be competing in two individual events at State, and junior Georgia Sinclair will compete in one. If it weren’t for the two event limit, Morin would be eligible to race in six State events and White in four State events.

State begins on Friday, Feb. 8, but Buchanan is already pleased with Manitou’s record-breaking performance in the pool this year.

“I honestly could not be more proud of this team and how hard each of them worked to accomplish this. I couldn’t have asked for a better senior year,” said Buchanan.