Before the Legacy girls swim team competed against Fort Collins Dec. 12 at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center, the Lightning hadn’t been in the water since their meet Dec. 7 against Loveland.
The boilers at the VMAC went down Dec. 6 so Legacy wasn’t able to practice in the water all week. But it was hard to tell since they won the meet with 194 points, while Fort Collins had 115.
“We’ve been out of the water for five days,” head coach Diana Wiles said. “We didn’t know what to expect. The times weren’t terrible, but were definitely up. It’s been one of those weeks.”
The Lightning captured first place in nine events out of 12, with their best event being the 200-yard freestyle relay. Despite not getting their best time in the event, Legacy still came in first, second, fourth and fifth place.
“We were shooting for state on that one,” Wiles said of the relay. “That was the relay we had our hopes on, but we’ll get it.”
Senior Haley Rhine, junior Elysia Hartojo, sophomore Gabbi Miyasaki and junior Mary Lombardi swam in the relay and finished with a time of 1:49.58. The state qualifying time is 1:48.00.
Rhine was part of the 200-yard medley relay at the beginning of the meet, which won first place, as well. Rhine came in second in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle with a time of 26.57 and 59.96, respectively.
Junior Annie Silva finished the 100-yard butterfly in first place with a time of 1:05.94 and came in third in the 100-yard free. Silva had just come back from Texas where she was competing with her club team.
“She had a really good meet,” Wiles said. “We’re expecting things out of her this year.”
Freshman Marina Larson placed first in diving with 188.45 points. Sophomore Sydney Brookstein and freshman Jessica Thill came in second and third place, respectively in the diving event.
Wiles said the season is going well so far, despite it feeling like a slow start.
“The season is going great, the girls are having a lot of fun and we’re seeing a lot of improvement in times.”
The Lightning will compete against Fairview Dec. 19 and then will swim at the Coaches Invitational Dec. 21, both at the VMAC. Legacy won’t compete after those two events until after winter break Jan. 7 against Rocky Mountain in Fort Collins.
