It was an impressive month in the pool for Durango’s youth swimmers.
At the end of October, the Durango Swim Club brought 39 swimmers to the Great Pumpkin Invite in Cortez and asserted its regional dominance. Two weeks later, the team took on some of Colorado’s best at the Deep Freeze Invitational in Glenwood Springs.
Durango won the Oct. 29 meet in Cortez with 1,326.5 points to the Four Corners Aquatics Team’s 1,088. The highlight of the day was 13-year-old Quinn Schmidt’s 100-yard backstroke effort in which she took nearly four seconds off her previous time to win second place. The only swimmer to beat Schmidt was 24-year-old Julia Carroll.
“I told (Quinn) I would give her $100 if she beat Julia,” Head coach Alex Martinek said in an email to The Durango Herald. “Quinn was winning in the first 50 and I was a mix of excited and cringing that I made that deal.”
The 200-yard medley relay team of Haley Benjamin, Angela McManus, Quinn Schmidt and Mina Wilemin also took first place.
Individually, Kaizer Lile was first in the 7-8 year old 100-yard backstroke competition for the Durango boys. Brandon Walker and Max Colley came in first and second, respectively, in the 15-and-older 50-yard freestyle. Lile, Alex Sheer and Ali Reese took second place in their age groups in the 50 freestyle, and Sheer won the 11-12 group’s 500-yard freestyle race.
For the girls, Mackenzie Rion won the 11-12 group’s 200 individual medley and Quinn Schmidt was fastest in the 13-14 race.
In the girls’ 10-and-under 25-yard backstroke competition, Durango’s Merin Schmidt took first and Sadie Ryan was second. Raina Dixon (6 and under), Merin Schmidt (7-8), and Angela McManus (11-12) all won their age groups in the girls’ 50-yard freestyle races. Chloe Cook took second place in the 11-12 100-yard butterfly race.
In the girls 500 freestyle, Durango swept the 11-12 as Angela McManus, Erin Knight, and Abby Bowman finished first, second, and third respectively. Coming in close behind them in fifth and sixth were Rion and Maren Clay.
In the 13-14 girls’ group, Quinn Schmidt took another first-place prize and Mina Wilemin finished right behind. Haley Benjamin won first place in the 15-and-older 500 freestyle.
In the mid-November Glenwood Springs meet, Merin Schmidt won the 8-and-under 100-yard freestyle event with a time of 1 minute, 25.7 seconds. Quinn Schmidt was best in the 13-and-older 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 19:35.10.
The McManus sisters also came away a winners as Aileen dominated the girls 8-and-under 50-yard breaststroke, while Angela won the 12-and-under 200 breaststroke and 200 freestyle.
Violet Witchel was second in the 13-and-older 50 freestyle with a time of 25.89.
The 12-and-under 200 medley relay team (Bowman, Rion, Knight, McManus) took third. Angela McManus was also third in the 11-12 100-yard freestyle (1:02.53) while Bowman was sixth, Rion was eighth and Knight was 13th in a good team finish in the event for Durango. McManus also finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke and runner-up in the 1,650 freestyle with Knight taking third.
Rion took third place in the girls 12-and-under 200-yard backstroke with a time of
2:49.04 and also finished third in the 11-12 100 backstroke. She was second in the 12-and-under 400 individual medley.
In the 8-and-under 100-yard breaststroke, Aileen McManus (1:58.90) finished third and Merin Schmidt was fourth (2:15.3). Schmidt also came in fourth in the 50 freestyle, as was Ali Reese for the boys in the 8-9 group.
Coach Martinek showed the squad how it’s done as he took first place in the 13-and-over 100 freestyle, to go with wins in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
