Niwot girls swim bests Erie in dual meet

Several Niwot High School girls swimmers were at their best on Dec. 8 in a dual meet against Erie High School.

Head coach Ella Thramann said that many of her Cougar swimmers broke their personal-best times, all leading to an impressive 199-93 win at the Aquatic Center of St. Vrain Valley schools.

Lauren Brooks set her best time in the 100 freestyle (1 minute, 41.15 seconds), senior Rowan Lavigne qualified for state in the 50 free (26.36) and Shefali Joshi’s 2:16.82 in the 200 free was close to the state-qualifying time — Thramann believes she’ll get there soon.

“The girls showed up and did great,” Thramann said. “A lot of them PR'd again, which was so fun to see. We had a few disqualifications, but that's just what happens. It turned out great, I was really proud of them.”

Lavigne took first in the 100 butterfly (1:07.44), Stephanie Mow led the 100 backstroke (1:04.49) and the 200 individual medley at 2:23.48 — 13 seconds faster than Erie’s second-place finisher, Juliana Strope won the 100 breaststroke (1:12.64), and Reese Lavigne was first in the 100 free (1:04.11).

Niwot’s relay teams were also in top form against Erie with the Cougars winning all three events: Strope, Cielle Burnett, Hannah Hooven and Emmy Hostelly won the 200 medley (2:08.46) and the quartet of Mow, Catherine Knight, Devi Burnett and Rowan Lavigne took both the 200 free (1:47.92) and 400 free (4:13.38).

Thramann hopes her team can continue staying focused heading into Niwot’s next meet on Dec. 14 at Roosevelt High School.

“We did a lot of tapering this week for this meet,” Thramann said. “Getting back in the grind of working hard and getting back into that racing momentum (is important). After the girls are done with a race, they block out of their heads that we have more, so (we’re working on) getting that mentality back that we still have other races and to still show up and compete just like every other meet we've done so far.”

On Dec. 10, Elizabeth Fay was Niwot’s lone representative at the Berthoud Break the Ice Diving Invitational. She placed fourth in the one-meter dive with 416.65 total points.