LOVELAND — Mathematically, the Thompson Valley girls swim team didn’t win the 4A state championship with Saturday’s 200-yard medley relay victory at the Mountain View Aquatic Center, but the Eagles sent an early message that they weren’t going to be denied.
Junior Sam Moss and sophomore Maggie Varuska muscled the Eagles from third place to a first-place finish in the event’s opening relay, and Thompson Valley held off defending champion Rock Canyon to score the school’s first team title since 1991.
The Eagles finished with 330 points to 266 for Rock Canyon. Cheyenne Mountain came in third with 175 points. But it all started with the first event of the finals, an event that Thompson Valley had no business winning in the early going.
“The relay started it off. The relay was just the beginning of the end. . . . That was crazy,” said Moss, who also won the 100 butterfly in 59.10 seconds. “I think that actually adds to it if you start out a little bit behind to get the adrenaline going that you need to start hauling. Everything just fell into place.”
Not bad for a bunch of kids who weren’t even born the last time Thompson Valley enjoyed such a championship. Even though it has been 19 years since the Eagles’ only other state title, this team definitely thought it had a chance.
“I wouldn’t say we were comfortable. We were pumped. We were really excited,” Moss said. “We knew it was going to be tough and that it wasn’t going to be handed to us.”
Thompson Valley and Rock Canyon had 10 finalists in the nine individual events, but it was the Eagles’ success in the consolation finals that gave them an edge. Jesslyn Mitchell took first in the consolation finals of 200 frees and teammates Lizzie Bergquist and Nicole Hlavacek took a 1-2 finish in the 200 individual medley.
“We knew that we had to come out and kind of make a statement. Rock Canyon swam awesome. They improved a lot off their times from yesterday. We knew they would be gunning for us,” Thompson Valley coach Kayli Changstrom said.
Individually, maybe no victory meant more than Mary Saiz’s win in the 100 backstroke in 58.83 seconds. The Pueblo South freshman held off Emily Campbell of Fossil Ridge to produce the first girls state championship ever from the city.
“I didn’t score my best time, but to come in to state as a freshman and to win state, I’m so happy,” Saiz said.
Evergreen’s Lexie Malazdrewicz joined Saiz as a freshman champion, winning the 200 individual medley, while Ashley Forsyth of Cheyenne Mountain added a 200 freestyle title to her back-to-back 500 freestyle championships.
