Girls High School State Off to Quick Start

The water was churning tonight at the 5A Girls High School State Championships as five state records were smashed during preliminary competition at EPIC in Fort Collins. The tone for the evening was set early as Jordan Mattern, a junior at Cherry Creek High School, served up the first state-record setting swim in the first individual event of the evening. Mattern clocked a 1:49.25 in the 200Y Free, breaking the previous mark of 1:50.04 set in 1992 by Stephanie Northrup of Creek.

To few people’s surprise, Missy Franklin, a freshman at Regis Jesuit High School, claimed two of the four records for the evening. Franklin, 14, destroyed the 50Y Freestyle record with a 22.70, bettering the previous record of 23.06 set in 1994 by Becky Bicknell of Denver East. In the 100Y Backstroke, Franklin set the new mark at 53.43, wiping out Creek Sophomore Bonnie Brandon’s record swim of 54.77 from last year.

In the 100Y Butterfly, Kelly Naze, a sophomore at Cherry Creek, put down a 54.44 erasing the mark of 55.16 set by Lisa Caprioglio of Highlands Ranch in 2006.

The biggest record margin, however, came in the 100Y Breaststroke as Duke-bound Cherry Creek High School Senior Christine Wixted swam a 1:02.68, more than a second and a half better than Regis Jesuit’s Lauren Stoeckle’s record-setting swim of 1:04.27 last year.

Down the road at Mountain View High School in Loveland where the 4A High School State Championship prelims were being swum, no records were set.

Not to worry. I'm sure the finals at both meets slated to begin at 2 p.m. tomorrow will be speedy.