Durango High School’s girls swimming and diving team has had an impressive start to the season and it carried into Saturday’s League Relay Meet in Grand Junction.

Though it didn’t count in the standings and the most of the events were simply exhibitions, the Demons continued to perform well and finished in second place out of 13 schools.

Demons divers Lia Henriksen and Kylie Behn paired up together in the one-meter dive competition and came away at the top of the standings with 132.70 points. The 200 medley relay team of Steevie Delio, Catherine Dellinger, Mira Joyner and Claire Larson won third place with a time of 2:00.83.

“This was more of a getting their feet wet type of thing, so we switched it up a little and mixed up the relay teams a bit,” Durango head coach Tom Joyner said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “The goal was to enjoy the experience, but I’ve been impressed with the effort. It was held strong since before the season started.”

Joyner has the luxury of a deep team with many Demons who can swim effectively in different events and dive too.

Jocelyn Earl and Sadie McAliney always participate in both and finished as the fourth best diving team on Saturday with 91.10 points.

“That’s what we’re shooting for and we’ve built a good base of swimmers,” said Joyner. “We’re hoping to have a deeper integration because that’ll help in developing different skills.”

Durango has a big weekend coming up with meets in Montrose and Colorado Springs that will split the team between the two places. They’ll have a chance to figure out where they stack up against the best in the state before heading into the holiday break.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve put in thus far but this will be a telling weekend for us,” said Joyner. “Hopefully we can build on the success we’ve had and come back after the break ready to swim again.”

jfries@durangoherald.com