Jamieson Legh, Rowan Lavigne lead Niwot girls swimming at Lightning Invite

New Niwot High School girls swimming head coach Ella Thramann has both veteran influencers and young talent helping her navigate the early days of her first season.

On the older side, seniors Jamieson Legh and Rowan Lavigne, in particular, are helping make Niwot's head coaching transition a bit easier. Both have been integral in creating Thramann's team-first culture focus.

"A lot of the girls come into swimming and they're scared that they are, one, not going to be as good as the others and, two, they don't know how to do anything, so they are scared they'll be punished for that, which does not happen," Thramann said. "But those girls have taught them how to do dives, how to do flip turns and how to feel more comfortable in the water."

The Cougars are also benefiting from their own talent in the water.

In Niwot's second meet of the season at the Lightning Invite on Dec. 3, Legh took first in both the 50 freestyle (24.05 seconds) and the 100 free (52.9). Lavigne also excelled, taking sixth in the 100 breaststroke and tenth in the 100 free.

"Breaststroke is her thing and watching her, just as amazing as she is, I can't wait to see all the things that she accomplishes throughout the season," Thramann said of Lavigna. "Definitely her and Jameson are my two stars on the team. It's just exciting to watch them compete."

To make their performances at Thornton's Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center even more impressive, both were coming in fatigued after competing at a club swimming meet the prior night.

The Cougars also benefited from a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay, which featured Legh (back), Lavigne (fly), Juliana Strope (breast) and Devi Burnett (free). All told, Niwot's depleted team scored 161 points to take seventh at the meet.

"We had 16 people missing due to sicknesses or traveling or whatever," Thramann said. "We went into it super nervous, but the majority of our girls all PR'd [swam a personal record time], which was awesome to see. Their excitement was just radiating off everyone else. I honestly didn't expect us to place seventh, I thought that was amazing for our team. It was good to see how far the girls have come. Some of them took like 15 seconds off their time from the first week."

With Legh and Lavigne swimming their final high school seasons, Niwot has a trio of talented freshmen in Hannah Hooven, Ava Altenborg and Emmy Hostelley. Thramann said that Hooven was 0.2 seconds away from a state-qualifying time at the Lightning Invite while the other two also have high ceilings.

"Those three girls are on my watch list because they're so amazing, and they are going to do incredible things over these next few years," Thramann said.

Niwot's next meet is against Erie on Dec. 8.