Durango senior Alexis Behn capped her high school career Thursday with a 10th-place finish at the Class 4A state swimming and diving championships, which are being held at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton.
Behn scored a 159.95 preliminary score to advance to the semifinals in 15th place. Behn remained in 15th with a score of 262.40 in the semis, advancing to the event’s finals.
Behn then made some moves, passing several divers ahead of her with a score of 370.15 to finish 10th in the state. Ivy Buckley of Rampart won the title by over 54 points with a score of 502.60.
Diving was the only final contested on Thursday, but prelims for the rest of the events were held and several Durango swimmers advanced to Friday’s A and B finals with top-20 preliminary performances.
Mckenzie Rion qualified for the A final in the 200-yard freestyle with the 10th-fastest time on Thursday: 1 minute, 59.57 seconds.
Rion also advanced to the B final in the 100 free with her fastest time of the year: 56.46.
Erin Knight qualified for the B final in the 500 free with the 17th-fastest prelim swim, which was nearly four seconds faster than her seed time: 5:34.49.
Durango also advanced to Friday’s finals in the 400-free relay after swimming the 19th-fastest prelim. Angela McManus (57.83-second split), Maren Clay (59.05), Erin Lawrence (1:01.01) and Rion (56.80) swam the team’s fastest time of the year, 3:54.69, to advance to the B final.
In the 50 free, McManus swam her fastest time of the year, 26.44, to finish 38th. McManus also raced in the 100 backstroke and finished 26th in 1:06.15.
In the 200 free relay, Emma Ebner (28.33), Erin Lawrence (27.59), Clay (26.83) and Anna Lawrence (27.25) placed 25th in the relay’s fastest time of the year: 1:50.00.
The 200-yard medley team, composed of Clay (31.75), Olivia Becher (37.82), Knight (31.14) and McManus (26.26) also finished 25th in 2:06.97.
The championship finals will begin at 3 p.m. Friday.
