PREP ROUNDUP: Glenwood swimming places 5th at 3A state meet; Local schools compete at Meeker Duals Tournament
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Despite sending just 13 swimmers to the 3A state swimming championships in Ft. Collins Friday and Saturday, the Glenwood Springs Demons girls swim and dive team placed fifth overall in the state meet, scoring 197 team points.
Evergreen won the state championship in 3A with 428 team points, finishing ahead of Pueblo County (297), Kent Denver (279), Aspen (241), and Glenwood in the top 5. Durango (192), Green Mountain (186), and Discovery Canyon (177) rounded out the top 8 at the state meet.
“Fifth in the state was a great finish to a really successful year,” said Steve Vanderhoof, Glenwood’s head coach. “I am very proud of our team effort with 11 of the 13 girls scoring individually or part of a scoring relay.”
The highlight of the state meet for the Demons was the third-place finish by the 400-yard Free relay team of freshman Amy Madsen, senior Kaitlyn Vanderhoof, freshman Ellie MacPherson, and sophomore Kylee Smith clocked a season best time of 3:47.99. Along with the 400-yard Free relay team, the 200-yard Medley relay team of senior Macy Stinson, Madsen, MacPherson, and Smith placed sixth in the final with a time 1:57.50.
Madsen got the Demons off to a fast start at the state meet in individual events with a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard Free, clocking a time of 2:01.36 for the Demons. The standout freshman also added a sixth-place finish in the 500-yard Free with a time of 5:29.79.
“Her time in the 500 free was her best time ever in the event,” said Vanderhoof. “She’s just a really strong, fit swimmer and understands how important each race is in high school swimming.”
Sophomore Kylee Smith joined Madsen in the 200-yard Free final and one-upped the freshman, placing sixth in the event with a time of 2:01.32, narrowly edging out Madsen at the wall. Smith also placed 10th in the 100-yard Fly with a time of 1:03.09, closing out a strong day in final races.
Sophomore Abby Scruton, in just her second year diving at the high school level, placed eighth in the 1 meter diving event for the Demons, scoring 378.55 points.
Glenwood says goodbye to a number of seniors, but the Demons are loaded with talented underclassmen coming back next season, which should have them right back at the state meet once again.
“We’re obviously going to miss those seniors,” said Vanderhoof. “But we have a number of freshman and eighth graders that are ready to step up. We’ll be tough next year, and I think we’ll be right back here at the state meet in a similar position.”
WRESTLING
The Glenwood Springs Demons, Rifle Bears, and Grand Valley Cardinals wrestling teams traveled to Meeker Saturday morning for the Cowboys’ Dual Tournament.
Grand Valley placed second at the tournament, while Glenwood Springs placed fifth and Rifle placed sixth in the eight-team tournament.
The Cardinals lost to Olathe 36-34 in the championship match, while Rifle lost to Glenwood 40-39 in the fifth-place match.
Glenwood started out the dual tournament by dropping a 59-22 decision to Meeker before then falling to Olathe 43-42 in a tightly-contested match. Glenwood got into the win column in the third match of the day by defeating Soroco 48-18, thanks to a pin by Max Burrell in 40 seconds in the 126-pound match, and a pin by Joaquin Garcia in the 138-pound match.
The Demons then battled Rifle in the fifth-place match, winning on a tiebreaker by one point, 40-39. Against the Bears, Burrell fell to Bryce Rowley by pin in 5:04 of the 126-pound match before Mathew Flores pinned Rifle’s Uriel Gonzalez in 1:50 of the 132-pound match.
Garcia then defeated Rifle’s Talon Cordova by tiebreaker, whle Joshua Sanvez, Caden Howe, Sebastian Garcia, and Tucker Porter picked up forfeit wins for the Demons.
In the 182-pound match, Glenwood’s Amos Wilson pinned Rifle’s Pedro Guardado in 2:47, but Alex Guardado got the Bears back on track with a pin in 1:20 of the 195-pound match over Glenwood’s Spencer Cloud.
Rifle’s Jared Henderson then defeated Glenwood’s Bryce Wheeler by decision (8-6) in the 220-pound match, before Alejandro Robles, Hunter Bercher, and Chris Archuleta picked up forfeit wins. In the final match of the day, Rifle’s Justin Henderson pinned Glenwood’s Dakotah Aguirre in 1:10 of the 120-pound match, but the Demons won via tiebreaker to place fifth.
Rifle dropped its first match of the day to Grand Valley (45-33), but then bounced back to defeat Basalt (54-24). The Bears then dropped the third match of the day to Palisade (30-27), before then falling to Glenwood Springs.
Grand Valley went 3-1 on the day, defeating Rifle, Palisade (47-12), and Basalt (33-24) before falling to Olathe (36-34) in the championship match.
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