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One slick team

Phil Sandoval
Post Independent Staff

GRAND JUNCTION ” Other Western Slope girls swim teams have been trounced by Glenwood Springs in recent years.

Now, they’ve also been surprised by the Demons.

Many thought this season’s younger and depth-challenged Glenwood squad would lose a meet to a regional opponent this year.



That has yet to happen.

A strong team effort, sparked by individual wins from Emily McDonald and Jennifer Betts, allowed Glenwood to amass 326 team points to win the six-team Grand Junction Invitational meet over runner-up Montrose by 85 points.



Battling the flu, McDonald still managed to swim four events at Saturday’s meet. And the Demons sophomore earned first place in all of them.

McDonald was a member of three Glenwood relay teams.

Glenwood opened the meet with a good start ” taking the 200-yard medley relay in 2 minutes, 1.62 seconds. The mark bested second-place Valley by .37 of a second. Later on, the Demons posted easy victories in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays on marks of 1:48.64 and 3:59.43.

Betts, a member of both the Demons free relay teams, bested Tigers swimmer Kristin Scandary for first place in the 100-yard individual freestyle.

In McDonald’s only individual event of the day ” the 100-yard butterfly ” she tapped the wall in 1:01.37, an arm’s length ahead of runner-up Angel Forsling of Grand Junction, who finished in 1:01.88.

“It was hard. I’ve been sick for a week, so it was a challenge,” said a panting McDonald afterwards.

A major factor in McDonald’s suiting up was to help the team.

“I wanted to win for my team, because they wanted to beat (Grand) Junction, and to prove to ourselves that we could do it,” she added.

Betts’ younger sister, Jessica, a freshman, helped the Demon cause by finishing third in the diving competition.

“I thought my dives were good,” Jessica Betts said. “I did a reverse dive today that I’ve never done before, except for practice. Today, I was very happy because I actually did it and scored some points.”

As a group, the Demon divers ” Allie Wine, Betts and Shanell Squires ” took second through fourth place among 12 competing divers.

“I was really pleased with all the divers today,” said Glenwood dive coach Patty Schaffner. “They worked as a team. That was good to see. They encouraged each other, and each of them pulled a personal best today. I was very excited to see all their hard work pay off.”

Three additional Demons posted four third-place marks between them. Sophomore Claire Noone placed third in the individual medley (2:33.91) and breaststroke (1:16.23).

Junior Stacey Miller’s third-place mark came in the 200 free when she posted a 2:13.95 finish. Senior Lyndsey Snyder posted a third-best 27.36 time in the 50 freestyle.

Glenwood’s next meet will be a historic day for the high school’s swim program: On Friday, the Demons are scheduled to host their first home meet at the recently completed Community Center pool.

“It’s going to be amazing,” McDonald said of Friday’s home opener. “I’m so excited. It’s going to be awesome.”


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