The Durango High School girls swim and dive team went to Glenwood Springs for two days of competition over the weekend and beat everyone but the hosts.
Durango finished second out of the four teams at Glenwood Springs on Friday and followed that up with a second place finish Saturday, again behind the home swimmers.
In Friday’s action, DHS’ 156 points trailed first-place Glenwood Springs by 44 points, with Aspen finishing third and Moffit County fourth. Saturday, Durango (232) finished just eight points behind Glenwood Springs. Summit finished third, while Aspen was fourth and Montezuma-Cortez was fifth.
“To be honest, I would have been happy with third place considering the teams we went up against,” Durango head coach Tom Joyner said. “Glenwood Springs is the defending district champion and we were right there with them on the second day, and that’s impressive.”
DHS one-meter divers Kylie Behn and Rudy Epstein finished first and second respectively both days.
The 200 freestyle relay also notched a win on Friday.
Acacia Cofman, Ruby Epstein, Jocelyn Earl and Mira Joyner finished in 1 minute, 51.31 seconds to best the Glenwood Springs team by 1.4 seconds. The Durango team of Emily Doughty, Katelyn Doughty, Lacey Hoselton and Saylor Stottlemeyer finished in third place in the same race.
Hoselton, Joyner, Claire Larson and Mina Willemin took third in the 200 medley relay finishing in 2:10.62.
Cofman, Earl, Larson and Willemin also earned third place in the 400 medley relay in 4:20.15.
Individually, Earl finished second in the 100 breaststroke (1:20.51) and Stottlemeyer was third with a swim of 1:21.72. Earl also took third in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:13.10. Joyner had two third-place finishes, one in the 100 butterfly (1:10.59) and the 100 backstroke (1:07.54).
On Saturday, Behn provided the only winning effort for Durango. Her 187.1 in the one-meter dive was only challenged by Epstein’s 181.30.
Joyner was runner-up in the 100 backstroke with a 1:15.14 finish. Earl earned second in the 200 butterfly finishing in 2:12.07 and got third in the 500 freestyle with a 5:54.94 swim.
The Cofman, Hoselton, Joyner, Willemin 200 medley relay team got second place with a finish of 2:09.68 and the 400 freestyle relay team of Earl, Hoselton, Joyner and Katelyn Doughty came away with a second place time of 4:14.86.
Durango will compete in the Western Slope League Championships next weekend in Grand Junction at Colorado Mesa University’s El Pomar Natatorium.
“We’ve had a few ups and downs this year,” Joyner said. “But, I think if we aren’t exactly where we want to be heading into this time of the season, we’re pretty close. We’ll find out next weekend.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
