The threat of looming weather kept one Durango High School girls swimmer away from the state meet. That left junior Alexis Behn as the lone Demon at state Friday at the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A Girls Swimming and Diving Championships.
Behn took to the diving board Friday morning at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton. After an 11-dive program, she finished with a score of 369.30 to place 11th out of the top-20 Class 4A divers in the state.
The state championship went to Rampart’s Maggie Buckley with a score of 529.85, while Rampart’s Ivy Buckley was second with a 486.40. Third went to Cheyenne Mountain senior Kaelyn Hinesley, who scored 465.60.
“Lexi had been off the board for about seven days with the quarantine, and I think her first practice back was Wednesday night,” DHS coach Thomas Joyner said. “Thursday was a travel day, so she really hadn’t been on the board much. What I saw was her getting better with every dive. I think if it had been a 15-dive program, she would have killed it. There was really one dive she talked about wanting back, but overall, it was really solid, and I am super proud of her.”
Behn and Montrose’s Violet Noel were the only Class 4A divers from the Western Slope. Noel finished 13th with a score 364.65.
“I think the top seven or eight divers were all from the same club in Colorado Springs,” Joyner said. “There was some amazing diving happening there, and I think more than a few people felt like they observed collegiate-level diving at the top.”
Mackenzie Rion, another DHS junior, had qualified for the 500-yard freestyle race but decided to scratch with the threat of a major winter storm expected to hit the state this weekend.
“She has another year, and I am excited to see what she can do at state next year,” Joyner said.
The format of the 2021 season was greatly altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that meant fewer state qualifiers for DHS, which also saw fewer qualifiers after being moved back up to Class 4A from 3A.
Joyner hopes the Demons can go back down to 3A to compete as an entire team in future years rather than bringing a handful of individuals.
“In 4A, we will always bring girls up and have kids in that top 10. We can compete as individuals but not as much as a team,” he said. “If we were deadly serious about it and we competed in Class 3A, I think we could be dangerous competing for a state title. I’d love another crack in 3A to see how close we could get to No. 1.”
Regardless of classification, Joyner mostly hopes for a return to normalcy in 2022.
“If we can get back to having upwards of 11 meets to compete in, we need that,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that the more opportunities you have to actually compete, whether it is swim or dive, your strategies become more informed in terms of how to do it and what you need to do. It’s challenging when you swim or dive only one or two meets and then have to expect to go out to state without having a chance to fine tune what you’re doing.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
