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Demon swimmers enter holiday break with a win

Phil Sandoval & Baron ZahuranecPost IndependentGlenwood Springs, CO Colorado

GRAND JUNCTION Although its mandated that winter sports high school athletes have a holiday break from competition, Sierra Grove wont spend much time away from the pool.We have four days legally that we can practice, then well try and do the workouts (the coaches) give us, she said.In Groves case, those unsupervised workouts will focus on improving her techniques.Ill be working on my flip turns, because Ive changed the way I do them, she said after Glenwood Springs double-dual meet win over Grand Junction and Moffat County Saturday.I always pulled at the wrong line. So my coaches are trying to change that, and that takes time. So this is the perfect time to work on that.As the senior freestyler zeroes in on perfecting that part of her game, it appears that Grove has gotten her turn problem handled.She won the 100 and 200-yard freestyle by wide margins in both races finishing in 58.40 seconds and 2 minutes, 9.83 seconds. Switching gears to the 200 and 400 free relays, Grove anchored the Demons to easy victories to wrap-up the teams pre-Christmas portion of the schedule on a high note.Actually, it was a lot of fun because it was nice, Grove said of Saturdays small, three-team meet whose combined rosters were about half the size of a summer club team.The amount of opponents didnt bother Glenwood much. The Demons won five events and finished second in four of the other 11 events to beat Grand Junction 128-120, along with a 145-78 victory over Moffat County.Clara Thorson added a third individual first place win for the Demons when she captured the butterfly in 1:13.49. The mark bested runner-up Cameo Wilson of Moffat Countys time by almost nine seconds.A pair of Morgan Wyrick second-place marks in the 50 and 500 free gave the Demons some much-needed points. Lindi Hoffman and Alida Eide took second in the 100 free and the backstroke, respectively.

The second quarter is what did Gunnison in and gave Coal Ridge the win yesterday. The Titans (5-1 overall, 3-0 3A Western Slope League) came out on top, 50-35, thanks to a 27-1 scoring difference in the second period.Gunnison (1-3 overall, 1-1 3A WSL) had a 15-9 lead after the first, but were down 36-16 at halftime. The Titans were outscored 19-14 in the second half, but their second quarter outburst gave them the 15-point win.Tori Verdieck led the Titans with 16 points, hitting eight of 10 from the stripe. Morgan Jessup added 11 points and Mikaela Guettler had seven.Katie Vader had 17 points for Gunnison and Jac Lovato chipped in 12 more.

The Titans boys (6-0 overall, 3-0 3A WSL) followed with a win of their own, beating Gunnison 60-46.Gunnison (1-4 overall, 0-2 3A WSL) had a 18-14 lead after one, but Coal Ridge tied it at 33 by halftime. The Titans tallied nine more points than Gunnison in the third quarter, and held them to just six points in the fourth.Coming off a 40-point performance, Eric Schmitz led Coal Ridge with 20 points. Nathan Terrin had nine points and Andy Smedra and Alex Klein had seven points each.Kolby Pringle led Gunnison with 11 points, Ian Kahn had 10, and Bryan Northrup added eight.


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