The Pagosa Springs High School Lady Pirate swim team competed in the Gunnison Cowboy Invite on Friday, Jan. 23, with the coach indicating the teams’ work is paying off.
“We had an amazing meet in Gunnison,” wrote coach Heather Miller in an email to The SUN. “The little bit of sprint work we did last week really paid off with the majority of swims resulting in best times.”
The girls competed in 11 events over the course of the meet, with several swimmers swimming personal best times.
The first event of the meet was the 200-yard medley relay. The Lady Pirate team of Marlowe Hedgecock, Leah Blackman, Chloe Gantt and Gianna Shaeffer finished second with a time of two minutes, 22.83 seconds. The team of Grace Cram, Ruby Snell, Angela Gomez and Leilani Snell finished fourth with a time of 2:41.22. The team of Shantee Murphy, Avery Book, Kaillen Taylor and Isabela Forster finished fifth with a time of 3:25.33. Another Lady Pirate team was disqualified.
The 200-yard freestyle was the next event, and the Lady Pirates had three swimmers compete. Gantt took first place at the meet with a 2:24.87. Ruby Snell dropped more than 11 seconds and placed third with a time of 2:59.73. Leilani placed fourth with a time of 3:01.98.
Four swimmers competed in the next event, the 200-yard individual medley. Cram placed second, dropping more than four seconds for a personal best time of 3:18.35. Hedgecock was the next Lady Pirate to finish, placing third with a time of 3:20.60. Gomez dropped more than three seconds, swimming a personal best 3:27.76 and placing fourth. Lucia Rivera was disqualified.
The 50-yard freestyle was next, with 11 swimmers competing for the Lady Pirates.
Shaeffer dropped 0.04 seconds, swimming a personal best 31.86 and placing third. Blackman dropped 0.72 seconds, swimming a personal best 32.88 and placing fifth. Kailey Vincent dropped more than two seconds, swimming a personal best 34.42 and placing sixth. Cheyenne Trujillo dropped 1.03 seconds, swimming a personal best 35.39 and placing eighth. Brooklyn Trujillo swam a 36.59 and placed ninth. Murphy placed 11th, swimming a personal best 37.41 after dropping more than 4 seconds. Book swam a 38.18 and placed 12th. Angelique Buffum swam a 38.74 and placed 13th. Forster dropped 0.78 seconds, swimming a personal best 38.93 and placing 14th. Arya Patel dropped 0.22 seconds, swimming a 44.95 and placing 17th. Taylor swam a 1:03.43 and placed 20th.
Hedgecock was the only Lady Pirate to compete in the 100-yard butterfly. She dropped 3.32 seconds, swimming a personal best 1:36.74 and placing fourth overall at the meet.
Six swimmers swam the 100-yard freestyle. Murphy dropped more than 30 seconds and swam a personal best 1:22.42. She placed fourth at the meet. Cheyenne Trujillo dropped 0.07 seconds, swam a personal best 1:28.39 and placed sixth. Rivera placed seventh, swimming a 1:32.31. Patel dropped more than nine seconds, swimming her personal best time of 1:41.93 and placing ninth. Buffum placed 10th after swimming a 1:45.61. Taylor placed 11th after swimming a 2:24.86.
The 500-yard freestyle was swam by six Lady Pirates. Gantt dropped 5.61 seconds and swam a personal best 6:32.49. This time was good enough for not only a second place finish, but a Pagosa Springs High School record.
“There are numerous highlights of the meet but the biggest is having a 6 year old team record broken in the 500 Free by Chloe Gantt, she broke the record by over 2 seconds,” wrote Miller.
Cram was the next Lady Pirate to finish, swimming a 7:25.37 and placing third at the meet. Gomez swam a 8:02.43 and placed fourth. Vincent dropped more than 50 seconds, swimming a personal best 8:51.70 and placing sixth. Brooklyn Trujillo dropped 2.25 seconds, swam a personal best 8:53.85 and placed seventh. Book swam a 9:01.89 and placed eighth.
The Lady Pirates had two teams compete in the 200-yard free relay. The team of Leilani Snell, Ruby Snell, Blackman and Gomez placed second with a time of 2:17.06. The team of Rivera, Buffum, Patel and Murphy placed fourth with a time of 2:39.95.
Ruby Snell and Forster were the only two swimmers who competed in the 100-yard backstroke for the Lady Pirates. Ruby Snell placed fourth with a personal best time of 1:30.07 after dropping 2.24. Forster placed sixth with a personal best time of 2:02.97 after dropping more than 16 seconds.
Three Lady Pirates competed in the 100-yard breaststroke. Shaeffer placed second with a personal best time of 1:25.71, dropping 1.48 seconds. Blackman swam a 1:30.06 and placed third. Leilani Snell swam a 1:46.90 and placed fifth.
The final event of the night was the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Lady Pirate team of Hedgecock, Cram, Shaeffer and Gantt placed first with a time of 4:58.94. The team of Vincent, Brooklyn Trujillo, Cheyenne Trujillo and Book placed third with a time of 5:54.65.
The Lady Pirates have two meets this weekend, both in Durango. The first starts at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30. The second starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31.
“For the meets in Durango our main focus is working on speed and maintaining good stroke technique, we will also work on starts and turns this week,” wrote Miller.
jsellner@orourkemediagroup.com
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