GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. It was a strong final session for Western Colorado swimming Saturday night at the TYR/CMU Invitational as the Mountaineers had 15 swimmers in four individual events that, together with the final relay, kept them in fourth place on the final team leaderboard.
Four of the 15 were in B-final heats, scoring points to help the point total. Of the four,
LynDea Turner recorded the highest finish with her 11th place in the 200-yard backstroke.
Fifth after the opening 50 of the consolation heat, Turner jetted all the way into second place in the second 50 and inched up to within one second on the heat winner, finishing with a time of 2 minutes, 7.69 seconds.
In the same heat teammate
Tayla Liddle scored with her 16th-place time of 2:14.72.
In the C-final of the 200 back it was
Afton Page (2:11.93) dropping four seconds from her prelims time to finish 18th overall,
Bella Gamez (2:16.39) finishing in 19th, and
Emma Smith (2:17.38) cutting three seconds from the morning to finish 20th.
Half of the 100 freestyle C-final was composed of Mountaineer swimmers, and
Makenna Lambert would lead the pack to the pads to win the heat in 54.45 seconds and place 17th overall.
Jordan Maruska (54.71) would finish third (19th overall) with
Addison O'Donnell (54.89) immediately behind in fourth (20th overall). Seventh in the heat and finishing 23rd overall was
Taylor Grebe in a time of 55.58.
Scoring points for the Mountaineers with her 16th-place finish in the 200 breaststroke was
Trinity Caudle, whose time of 2:31.28 was eighth in the B-final.
Dropping two seconds from her morning swim and finishing 17th overall was
Leah Wagner in a final time of 2:29.83.
The 200 butterfly event saw
AvaMarie Hopewell finish eighth in the B-final with a time, 2:16.67, three seconds faster than her prelims time. Hopewell scored for Western by finishing 16th overall.
A trio of Mountaineers raced in the C-final of the fly event.
Anna Maurello (2:20.99) trimmed almost four seconds of her morning swim to finish 18th overall, with teammates
Elisa Elsberry (2:23.77) and
Miranda Noonan (2:27.61) just behind in 19th and 20th place, respectively.
Also scoring points for Western were two 1,650 freestyle swimmers,
Sidney-Ann Morris and
Carolyn Goodwin. The event was a timed final with the Mountaineer pair swimming their heat at the conclusion of the prelims session and the top eight seeded swimmers opening the evening session with their heat.
Morris finished with a time of 19:17.32 to earn 10th place and Goodwin was 11th overall with a time of 21:05.87.
The final event of the session and of the Invite was the 400 free relay. The 'A' quartet of
LynDea Turner, Liddle, Grebe and Maruska swam to a seventh-place finish with a time of 3:40.27. Each of the first three swimmers posted splits of 55 seconds with Maruska anchoring the relay with a split of 54.26.
In ninth place was the 'B' foursome of Smith, Gamez, Maurello and Hopewell in a time of 3:46.61. Hopewell registered the fastest split of the four, anchoring the relay with a 54.88.
LOOKING AHEAD
Western will host Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference foe Colorado State University Pueblo on Saturday, December 3 at 1 p.m. in Paul Wright Natatorium. The event will be the Mountaineers' Senior Meet.
PRELIMS RECAP
The last preliminaries session of the four-day TYR/CMU Invite concluded Saturday morning, with 15 different Western Colorado swimmers earning a return trip into the last finals session of the meet at Colorado Mesa University's El Pomar Natatorium.
As with previous days at the Invite, afternoon scratches could potentially move swimmers up from one heat into another heat in the evening.
Leading off the morning prelims were the 200-yard backstrokers.
Western has two scheduled to compete in the points-scoring B-final as
LynDea Turner and
Tayla Liddle qualified with their morning swims. Turner will head into the evening seeded 11th after prelims clocking of 2 minutes, 8.14 seconds, and she'll be joined in the heat by Liddle (2:12.17) who is currently seeded 14th.
Qualifying for the C-final are
Afton Page (2:15.96),
Bella Gamez (2:16.35) and
Emma Smith (2:20.42). Page is seeded 17th, Gamez 19th and Smith 21st.
The Mountaineers pushed four swimmers into the C-final of the 100 freestyle. Within one second of each other during the morning prelim heats were
Makenna Lambert (54.02),
Jordan Maruska (54.31) and
Addison O'Donnell (54.95). Only one half a stroke back was
Taylor Grebe at 55.49. Lambert heads into the afternoon break seeded 17th, Maruska 18th, O'Donnell 19th and Grebe 23rd.
Both of Western's entrants into the 200 breaststroke will make it back for the evening session.
Trinity Caudle qualified for the B-final with a 14th-seeded time of 2:30.75, while
Leah Wagner (2:31.98) is slated for the C-final with the 18th-fastest prelims time.
AvaMarie Hopewell qualified for the B-final of the next event, the 200 butterfly, posting a time of 2:19.44 to earn the No. 16 seed.
An afternoon scratch or scratches could potentially move
Elisa Elsberry (2:23.49) up from her 17th-seeded C-final position, as well as
Miranda Noonan (2:24.09) in 18th.
Anna Maurello (2:24.58) in 19th also has the possibility of moving up from the C-final.
The first of two timed final heats of the 1,650 freestyle was contested at the end of the prelims session – the top eight seeds will compete as the opening heat of the finals session – and included Western's
Sidney-Ann Morris and
Carolyn Goodwin. Morris posted a time of 19:17.32 for second place in the heat, and Goodwin was third in the heat with a time of 21:05.87. Both swimmers will end up scoring points for the Mountaineers when the results of the two heats are combined.
The finals session is schedule to begin at 4 p.m. with the fast heat of the 1,650 leading off the schedule. The finals and consolation heats of the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast and 200 fly will follow, and the Invite will conclude with the 400 free relay.
