Following weeks of hard work and dedication, the Summit High School swim and dive program concluded the 2023-24 season at the Class 3A state swim and dive meet this past weekend at Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton.

Represented by seven girls, Summit managed to improve upon its 25th-place finish at last year’s state meet, jumping to 18th place overall because of the stellar performances from the team. 

Summit began the two-day state meet on Friday, Feb. 9, where the team competed in the preliminary heats in hopes of advancing to the state final round on Saturday. 

The first event the Tigers competed in was the 200-yard medley relay. Junior Izzy Rowe started off the relay with a strong backstroke leg before senior Ashley Leidal completed the breaststroke leg and junior Aila Harmala did the butterfly leg. Junior Olivia Lyman ultimately brought the relay home with the freestyle leg, clocking a time of 25.55 seconds to finish the relay in a total time of 2:05.37. The time ranked the Tigers 21st out 28 teams, narrowly missing the 20-team final.

Minutes after finishing her leg of the 200-yard medley relay, Harmala returned to the pool for the second event of the meet, the 200-yard freestyle. Harmala began the race off strong with a 50-yard split of 31.73 seconds, but she began to fade in the latter part of the race. Harmala placed 39th overall in a time of 2:20.29.

Wanting to be Summit’s first finals qualifier of this year’s state meet, Leidal swam brilliantly in the opening round of the 200-yard individual medley, putting together four strong legs to place 15th overall (2:27.75) to advance to the B-final on Saturday.

Rowe also competed in prelims of the 200-yard individual medley but came up a few places short from advancing to the final. Rowe finished 27th out 38 athletes with a time of 2:32.09.

On Saturday, Leidal went on to improve upon her finish and time in prelims, placing 14th overall in the B-final with a time of 2:26.35.

Lyman was the next Summit athlete to advance to a final in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races. Fresh off shattering her own school record and becoming a conference champ last week, Lyman confidently swam through both prelims, placing fifth in the 50-yard race (25.90) and ninth in the 100-yard race (56.87).

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With spots in the A-final of both events, all Lyman had to do was swim to her capabilities on Saturday, and she did just that. Lyman placed sixth with a time of 26 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle final and then clocked 57 seconds to place 10th in the 100-yard freestyle final.

The performances not only added several points to Summit’s team score, but also marked a noticeable improvement since last year’s state meet, where Lyman placed 20th in the 50-yard and 39th in the 100-yard.

Sophomore Izzy Rolfe also competed in the prelims of the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races, but she was not able to clock a time fast enough to advance to the finals in each event. Rolfe placed 24th and went under her seed times in both events. 

Leidal and Harmala eventually both returned to the pool for the 500-yard freestyle prelims. Leidal sealed her spot in the B-final, placing 17th with a time of 5:58.82 while Harmala finished in 22nd, two spots out of advancing to the final with a time of 6:05.52.

Scoring an additional three points or the Tigers, Leidal placed 18th overall (5:58.70) in the final.

Rounding out the individual events for Summit was sophomore Teagan Barth in the 100-yard butterfly and Rowe in the 100-yard backstroke. Barth placed 28th overall in the prelims of the 100-yard butterfly on Friday, clocking a time of 1:09.37 while Rowe advanced to the B-final of the 100-yard backstroke. Rowe placed 16th in the prelim with a time of 1:07.15 and fell one place to 17th in the final in a near identical time of 1:07.39. 

Summit scored several more points with its final, two state-qualified relays. The 400-freestyle relay team saw the most success, breaking a school record and placing within the top 20.

With Rolfe, Rowe, Leidal and Lyman all lending their talents to the relay, Summit placed 12th in the prelims (3:59.76) before dropping over four seconds in the final (3:55.61). The drop in time catapulted the Tigers into 11th place in the final and also secured a school-record time for the team at the final meet of the season.

“Being part of the record-breaking relay team was an amazing experience,” Leidal said. “It was incredible to see all our work throughout the season pay off. The girls on the relay team are amazing, and there are no others that I would have wanted to swim my final race with.” 

Rolfe, Harmala, Barth and sophomore Lydia Peterson all competed on the 200-yard freestyle relay, leading the team to a 21st-place finish in prelims.

Summit scored a total of 66 points at this year’s Class 3A state swim and dive meet to place 18th out of 32 teams. St. Mary’s Academy High School won the meet with 384 points, Evergreen High School placed second and Glenwood Springs High School took third.

“Swimming at states was lots of fun, and it felt great to be able to go out on such a high note,” Leidal said. “All of our hard work individually and as a team finally paid off. Everyone swims fast, and it is awesome to be able to cheer on all your teammates. Having the opportunity to race at states for my final swim meet was amazing, and I really enjoyed it.”

Summit will graduate seven seniors from this year’s team, including Leidal, Josie Riberdy, Anna Vos, Olivia Feest, Charlotte Hudnut, Cora Jackson and Esther Thoma.

For a full list of results from the Class 3A state swim and dive meet, visit ChsaaNow.com.