Niwot High School girls swim team earns dual meet win over Skyline

With a largely inexperienced roster, Niwot girls swim head coach Ella Thramann is taking things slowly early this season.

Originally set to compete in an invite on Dec. 2, Thramann instead scheduled a dual meet against Skyline for Dec. 2, hoping to give her Cougars a lower-stress learning opportunity.

"A lot of our girls don't understand a meet, and we have a lot of girls this year who don't know really anything about swimming," Thramann said. "We decided to do a low-key dual where the girls could understand a meet and go through it."

The audible proved optimal as Niwot's young swimmers received plenty of reps in five different events at the St. Vrain Aquatic Center on the Silver Creek High School campus. Shefali Joshi won the 50-yard butterfly, Ava Altenborg led the 50 backstroke, Devi Burnett took first in the 50 freestyle and Camilla Wier-Bigelow swam to victory in both the 50 breaststroke and 100 individual medley.

Niwot's first-place sweep led the way to a 114-30 win over Skyline in the Cougars' first dual meet victory of the young season.

"I think it went well," Thramann said. "We did have a lot of top finishers and hopefully, we'll have state qualifiers by the end of the season."

Those in the hunt for a state qualifying time include sophomore Emmy Hostelley, who had four top-five finishes, and senior Reese Lavigne, who took second in the 50 backstroke. Daisey Bui also impressed on Saturday with a runner-up finish in the 50 breaststroke.

The comfortable win came without the services of top returning senior Charlotte Heuer, but the freshman Wier-Bigelow stepped up when needed. Niwot's young talent swam the 50 breaststroke in 37.52 seconds before winning the 100 individual medley at 1:13.56.

"She's a club summer as well, so it's good to have her on our team," Thramann said of her rookie swimmer.

Two days prior, Niwot lost a dual meet against Class 5A Boulder High School on Nov. 30.

"It was tough because Boulder's a big school, they have a big team," Thramann said. "We only lost by five or seven. We also had a diver (junior Elizabeth "Izzy" Fay), which helped a ton, and she got her state (qualifying dive) that meet, so that was cool to see."

As her young swimmers are finding their groove in the pool, Thramann said she's also getting more comfortable now in her second year at the helm.

"We're changing a few things, the way that practice runs, how our meets run and all those kinds of things," Thramann said. "I'm doing more one-on-one with everyone and having the team be involved with each other."

Niwot's next meet comes against Erie High School at the St. Vrain Aquatic Center on Wednesday, Dec. 6.