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Four records fall for swimmers at districts

David Pressgrove

A plate has been missing from the board that marks the records set throughout the years by Moffat County High School’s girl swimmers.

The plate that’s been missing marked a Bulldog record, set three years ago, in the 200-yard medley relay.

No worries now though. No need to search for the piece of history. The 2006 team set a record in the medley Saturday in Durango at the Western Slope Championships.



There’ll be a new plate to display on the wall beside the high school pool.

“I called (former coach) Ed (Stehlin), and he told me we broke the record,” senior Ashleigh McDonald said. “So we don’t have to worry about not having one (plate) up there anymore.”



McDonald swam the breaststroke portion of the medley. She teamed up with junior Vanessa Murray (butterfly), sophomore Kelsey Conci (freestyle) and sophomore Caitlin Conci (backstroke) for a second-place finish in the meet. The team’s record-setting time in the medley was 1 minute, 59.26 seconds.

Three other Moffat County records were broken at the meet, but the engraver won’t have as much work for those records. All three were broken by the previous record-holder, with Kelsey Conci breaking her previous times in the 50 and 100 freestyle and Caitlin Conci breaking the 100 backstroke.

The twins also won WSC titles in the 50 freestyle (Kelsey) and 100 backstroke (Caitlin).

Kelsey’s time of 24.8 seconds in the 50 was the first time she has broken 25 seconds. The blazing time is the third-fastest in Colorado’s Class 4A going into the state meet Friday.

“I didn’t expect to break into the 24’s,” she said. “At least not at the district.”

Kelsey also finished third in the 100 freestyle. She was 0.17 of a second out of first place

Caitlin won the 100 backstroke by more than two seconds.

“I have a friend from Delta who usually beats me,” she said. “This was the first time I had ever beat her, and I was surprised by how much.”

And the girls hadn’t even peaked yet.

“The fact that we still went hard in practice last week makes those times even better,” coach Jennifer Zimmerman said. “At state we might see some even more outstanding times.”

Although she won’t be going to the state meet Friday, McDonald was one of the Moffat County swimmers to cut drastic time from her previous best. But when the clock stopped, she was 0.65 of a second from a state-qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke.

“I cut two seconds off on Friday, and I had a really good split in the medley so I went into the final with one second left to cut,” she said. “I felt fast and thought I had it, but I was just off.”

She finished fifth in the event.

The Bulldogs had seven scoring swims, which was good enough for seventh at the Western Slope Championships.

Other placing performances were in the other two relays. The 200-freestyle team of both Concis, Murray and sophomore Meghan Innes was fifth with a time of 1:52.07. The 400-freestyle team of Murray, Innes, Caitlin Conci and senior Alyssa Pierson finished ninth.

The Bulldogs leave Thursday for the state meet at Mountain View High School in Loveland. All three relay teams will compete as well as Kelsey in both freestyle races and Caitlin in the 100 backstroke.


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