WARRIORS SWIMMING CONQUERS THE NCAC
Centaurus wins league championships; several other locals flash speed and skill
THORNTON >> As swimmers prepared for the final relay of the Northern Colorado Athletics Conference league meet at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center on Friday morning, Centaurus sophomore Brayde Patik felt the weight of expectation.
A win in the 400-yard freestyle relay would ensure the Warriors walked away with the NCAC team title. Anything else could have handed that honor to Windsor. The quartet of Abby Larsen, Aamon Grigg, Patik and Virginia Walsh didn’t just win the event.
They dropped nearly five seconds off of their preliminary performance, clocking in with a final time of 3 minutes, 40.55 seconds. As a result, Centaurus took home the team gold with 486.5 points — edging out Windsor by 43.
“At first, I was a little panicked, because I didn’t know if we could pull through with it. But then as I swam, we did it. It felt really nice,” Patik said. “I think we had a couple good freshmen come in, and everybody’s just been working hard throughout the season.”
Patik, who’s not a swimmer by trade, led a strong showing for the Warriors with wins in the 400 free, the 100-yard backstroke (58.66 seconds) and the 200 free relay (1:40.35). Virginia Walsh and Abby Fitzgerald joined her atop the podium with victories of their own in the 200 free (1:55.24) and in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.58), respectively.
The league wins, while nice, only served to further illuminate Patik’s ability in the pool, a year after she joined the USA National Team for water polo.
She’s made her mark with Team Vegas as she’s gotten to travel all over the world for competition.
Next week, she’ll get to showcase her talents closest to home at the Class 4A state swim meet, which will bring her back to the VMAC for prelims on Wednesday. While she knows the competition won’t be easy, she’s excited to see what she and her Warriors can accomplish.
“League is good, but state’s hard,” she said.
Going the distance
In a region as tough as the northern side of Denver, Holy Family sophomore Lorelai Frauenfelder has found ways to stand out. Prior to Friday’s meet, she held nine top-10 times in Class 3A, and she didn’t disappoint at NCACS either.
She earned an individual win in the 100 fly (58.07), then supplemented that with a victory in the 200 medley relay (1:52.65). She added a couple of silvers as well in the 200 IM (2:07.83) and the 400 free relay (3:43.11).
“I was about to cry after my 200 IM,” Frauenfelder said. “I haven’t dropped like that. I haven’t gone under 2:10.00 all
season, so that was very exciting.”
It all boiled down to a positive mindset and a lot of yardage, as she’s logged 3,000 to 5,000 yards in the pool every practice this year. She’s seeing all that hard work pay off as she tapers toward state, where she looks to make her mark even further.
The ultra-competitive league meet only prepared her that much more.
“It’s insane. Last year, I didn’t feel like it was this intense, or maybe I just was in races that didn’t have these girls in it, but there are so many good swimmers here and I’m so honored to be able to race them,” she said. “We are such a fast state and I don’t understand how Colorado is so fast.”
Smooth under pressure
The last time Longmont senior Jordan Bindseil graced the VMAC for a state meet, she walked away with a gold in the 100 free and silver in the 50 free, dripping with pride.
Not a lot has seemed to change over the last calendar year.
On Friday, Bindseil propelled her way to a dominant win in the 50 free (23.86), which she won by almost 1.5 seconds, as well as a tight victory in the 100 free (51.98). She barely edged out Centaurus’ Walsh, who has been a force this season in her own right, by 0.33 seconds.
“It’s been kind of a lot of pressure, but it’s been fun. I’m just trying to have fun with it, like normal. I’m really excited for state. I think it’ll be a really fun senior year,” Bindseil said. “There are a lot of fast girls here, and it’s honestly so fun to be able to race a bunch of people from around the district and stuff. I’m friends with a lot of them.”
The state meet is now the last hurdle that Bindseil must clear, and she’s feeling confident in her abilities as she looks to defend last year’s effort in the 4A competition.
Making a splash
Throughout this season, Silver Creek has been making the most noise in the 1-meter dive (11 dives), as its three top ladies have secured top-10 rankings heading into the 4A state meet next week.
At the league meet, senior Savannah Wolf led the Raptors’ triple threat with second place and a score of 443.00, trailing just behind Windsor’s Reagan Annable (460.20). The Raptors continued down the line with Leslie Broz in third place (427.30) and Haley Lindberg in fourth (383.00).
Wolf believes that success is just a continuation of last year’s performances.
“The three of us have been working really good together and doing great at competitions,” she said. “Honestly, last year, I think we were performing pretty much just the same. We’re all super close and we know how to talk each other down from being scared or uplift each other during meets.”
As state fast approaches, Wolf is working to hone her consistency so she can hopefully place in the top eight during her final high school competition.
“I think, for me, the biggest thing was not putting pressure on myself. I knew the competition. I knew pretty much everyone there, so I was mostly just trying to have fun and not worry too much about it,” Wolf said. “My approaches are sometimes quite interesting, and I definitely get in my head a lot, but I think it’s just being consistent and knowing that I’m confident in all my dives.”