Brooke Kniffin finished her career at Durango High School as the fifth-best swimmer in the state in the 100-yard backstroke at the CHSAA Class 4A Girls Swimming State Championships on Saturday in Fort Collins.
Kniffin took 59.03 seconds to complete the race and jumped up two spots from her seeded time.
“Brooke was fantastic. It’s gonna be tough losing her,” DHS head coach Kathryn Ross said. “She’s a great athlete with a wonderful attitude.”
The Demons finished 17th out of 31 teams with 41 points.
Evergreen won the meet with 332.5 points.
Kniffin was the only Demons’ swimmer to qualify for Saturday’s finals, but DHS qualified its 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays for the consolation finals, while Kniffin also made the consolation finals of the 50-yard freestyle, and Anne Mummery made the consolation finals of the 100-yard freestyle.
Kniffin took third place in the consolation finals, 11th overall, in 25.43 seconds in the 50 freestyle.
Mummery came in seventh place in the 100 freestyle consolation finals, 15th overall, at 55.33 seconds.
The 200 medley relay team finished fourth in the consolation finals, 13th overall, in 1:59.19.
The 400 freestyle relay team came in third in the consolation finals and 11th overall at 3:50.92.
“They all swam really good times and came together,” Ross said.
DHS also competed in the 200 freestyle relay during the preliminaries Friday, while Mummery also swam the 100 backstroke and Elli Earl the 100 breaststroke.
“This season was certainly difficult at first because we didn’t have the Fort Lewis pool (because of renovations). We had to adjust our practice times, and they weren’t the greatest,” Ross said. “What happened was the girls that stuck with the team throughout the season, it was a very tight-knit group and a very motivated group. They went above and beyond what I could have even expected of them.”
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
