Summit Swim and Dive Team Makes Waves with State Qualifiers in Final Meet Before the Holidays!

On Saturday, Dec. 21, the Summit swim and dive squad headed to Thornton to take part in its concluding meet before the new year — The REX Coaches Invite.

Held at Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center, four athletes from Summit competed in the highly contested event aimed at qualifying for the 4A state swim and dive meet at the end of the season. After adjusting from 3A to 4A over the past few weeks, Summit was able to achieve several state qualifying times during the meet in Thornton.

Summit attained a state qualifying standard in its opening event, the 200-yard medley relay. With senior Izzy Rowe beginning the relay with the backstroke, Summit clocked the first 50 yards in 32.14 seconds. Once Rowe touched the wall, junior Izzy Rolfe took over the breaststroke leg. Rolfe swam her portion in 36.50 seconds, allowing senior Aila Harmala to dive in for the butterfly leg. Harmala surged through her 50-yard segment, finishing in 32.42 seconds. Senior Olivia Lyman wrapped up the relay with the freestyle leg, recording a time of 26.30 seconds, bringing the total race time to 2:07.36. This time secured the team a 52nd overall finish and the qualifying standard for the 4A state swim and dive meet.

Shortly after contributing to the 200-yard medley, Lyman re-entered the water for the 50-yard freestyle. After spending a significant portion of the fall recovering from a fracture, Lyman completed the race in 26.34 seconds, achieving a state-qualifying time and placing 67th overall.

Lyman then participated in her second individual event, the 100-yard freestyle. After two events, she fought through fatigue, completing the first half of the race in 27.83 seconds and finishing the second half in 31.30 seconds. With a final time of 59.13 seconds, Lyman secured 66th place out of 76 swimmers representing various high schools in the state.

Rowe was the next Summit swimmer to compete individually. In the 100-yard backstroke, Rowe logged lap times within two seconds of each other, finishing with a time of 1:06.69, placing 71st overall.

The group of Summit swimmers then competed in the last event of the swim and dive meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay. With freestyle being one of Summit’s strong suits, the four swimmers ranked well among 48 other relay teams. Rolfe kicked off the relay with a split of 1:01.91 before Harmala finished her leg in 1:04.94. Rowe and Lyman ended the final two legs with times of 1:00.91 and 59.65 seconds, respectively. With a final time of 4:07.41, Summit ranked 32nd overall and successfully qualified for state in this event.

Summit will now enter the holiday recess before gearing up for a busy schedule of meets following the new year. The Tigers are set to return to the pool on Jan. 4 for a meet in Gunnison.

The last occasion the Tigers visited Gunnison on Dec. 14, they finished 3rd among seven teams. Summit aims to match or improve upon that result in their second trip to Gunnison after the new year.