RANGELY I Two weekends ago the Hurricanes had swimmers in Grand Junction and Ouray and this past weekend the team was in Aspen. The competitive swimmers have been improving with each meet and showing a lot of heart as they swim against some of the best year round swimmers in the state. Each swimmer has attained a personal best this season and several have already qualified for the Western Slope championship meet.
The Grand Junction Invitation meet had 29 teams in attendance including swimmers from the Front Range, Utah, Wyoming and as far away as Illinois. Geli Brown, Alexis Lopez, Andrew Morton, Marie Morton, Justin Prosser, Kelsey Prosser, Patrick Scoggins, William Scoggins, Alexsis Silva-McKay, Tessa Slagle and Korrynn Wenzel participated in the meet scoring 143 points and placing 19th as a team.
With more than 500 swimmers in this meet prelims were held in the mornings and the top 16 or 24 competitors (depending on the event) competed in the finals that same evening. All of our swimmers had strong showings and qualified for the finals in various events (See table A-1).
While the older swimmers were in Grand Junction, our younger swimmers headed to Ouray for a smaller meet where girls and boys competed head-to-head. Grant Lancaster, in his first year of swimming, finished fourth in the 25 meter freestyle and completed the 25 meter fly for the first time, without a disqualification. Mary and Timothy Scoggins battled back and forth with Timothy edging Mary out in the 25 meter backstroke and Mary getting the better of Timothy in the 25 freestyle. It was a small, low-key meet in beautiful Ouray, Colo., and the kids all had fun.
Swimming at more than 8,000 feet above sea level, the Hurricanes took 13 swimmers to the Aspen Invitation meet which had competitors from as far away as Texas and Arizona. With 16 teams represented, the Hurricanes finished seventh overall with each athlete contributing to the effort by swimming personal bests (See table A-2).
