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With nothing but conditioning, practice and friendly competition in mind, the Moffat County High School boys swimming team opened its season Saturday in Grand Junction.

MCHS finished sixth out of seven teams in the season-opening Grand Junction Relays - an annual tune-up event for Western Slope high school swim teams - held at the Orchard Mesa pool in Grand Junction.

"The kids all had really good swims," coach Patti Worsley said. "I was just really proud of how they all swam. It was good for a first meet, and it was really fun to watch.

"They did more than I thought they would."

For the first week of the 2009 swimming season, the emphasis on final times was replaced with proper form, complete turns and following through on a stroke.

"It's just relays," Patti Worsley said. "What you try to do is just get them through and understand how to get through an event without being disqualified - which is really important - and how a meet starts, how it is run and how to start races. You know, just kind of the basics of swimming.

"They learn what they do right and what they do wrong."

Because the season-opening meet didn't feature any individual events, it gave Worsley a chance to "mix and match" some of the Bulldogs swimmers in the team events.

"We just mixed them up," she said, "and waited to see what would happen."

A potential match was found in the 200-yard medley relay team and the 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Both teams finished third in their respective events.

Brandon Corey, Kevin Murray, Cole Worsley and Adam Richardson teamed up in the 200-medley to finish in 2 minutes, 26.73 seconds.

John Kirk, Charlie Griffiths and Chance Peterson joined Cole Worsley in the 400-free medley, completing the required eight laps in 4:02.16.

Both times are more than 25 seconds from state qualifying, but Patti Worsley is optimistic about their state qualifying chances at this stage of the season.

"I think they have a chance," she said. "There is a lot of time left in the season, and they have goals.

"Once they set their mind on something, you never know."

The Bulldogs have a week off for spring break. The team resumes competition March 20 and 21 in Montrose.