BOULDER — In swimming, two seconds is an eternity.
So when Abigail Houck shattered her record in the 500-yard freestyle by more than seven seconds Saturday at the Boulder County Invitational, scorekeepers and spectators were doing a double take at their heat sheets.
The Fairview sophomore’s time of 4 minutes, 58.77 seconds at the South Boulder Recreation Center broke her 2010 meet record of 5:05.65 and was more than 19 seconds faster than her time in Friday’s preliminaries.
“In the prelims, you try to make it back, just do what you can so in the finals you can really get it going,” said Houck, who posted a time of 4:53.95 at junior nationals in Atlanta last month, but that was near sea level.
Houck also won the 200 freestyle in 1:54.14, almost four seconds ahead of runner-up Jennifer Harrison of Boulder. Her efforts — she also assisted Fairview to a win in the 200 freestyle relay and a second-place finish in 400 freestyle relay — helped guide the Knights to the team title (784 points).
Fellow sophomore Lacey Smith was equally stellar, winning the 50 freestyle (24.43) and 100 freestyle (52.55) while helping the Knights to a 200 freestyle relay win and meet record in the 200 medley relay.
“Lacey and I both had really exciting swims, so that’s really good,” Houck said. “That’s really good for our team too.”
Knights junior Kourtney Fosse added a meet- record 1:05.23 in the 100 breaststroke. Add it up and Fairview won seven of the 12 events.
Other keynote performances included Monarch senior Anna Labozan, who broke meet records en route to first-place finishes in the 200 individual medley (2:05.67) and 100 backstroke (56.71). The former 200 IM mark of 2:07.83 was one of the meet’s longest-standing marks, set by former Fairview and Southern California swimmer Kristen Lahey in 2004.
“I wasn’t really trying to focus on getting the record, I just wanted to fix the mistakes I made in prelims,” said Labozan, who shaved 2.87 seconds off her prelim time. “Knowing that the record stood for seven years, that makes it more exciting.”
Harrison placed first in the butterfly and also led Boulder to a win in the 400 freestyle relay, helping the Panthers to a second-place tally of 604 points. Niwot’s Ariel Mosier was the top diver with 331.90 points.
Franklin lifts Regis over Cherry Creek
AURORA — The much-anticipated girls swimming dual between powerhouses Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit didn’t disappoint Saturday morning.
The host Raiders won the team race 175-140 in front of a raucous crowd.
The race of the day came in the 100-yard backstroke, with reigning Colorado swimmer of the year Bonnie Brandon of Cherry Creek squaring off against Regis sophomore Missy Franklin. Franklin cruised to a two-second victory over Brandon, who had already won the 200 freestyle, in a time of 54.59 seconds.
Franklin also posted a victory — by 10 seconds — in the 200 individual medley as well as anchoring an 11-second win in the final race of the day, the 400 freestyle relay.
Cherry Creek’s Jordan Mattern won two events, capturing the 100 butterfly and the 100 breaststroke.
Jon E. Yunt, The Denver Post
