The Montezuma-Cortez swim team hits the pool for its season opener in Durango on Friday, before returning to Cortez on Saturday for its first home meet.
And for the first time, the Lady Panthers will also field a dive team, coached by Virginia King.
“The team is very excited to have a dive team this season,” said M-CHS head coach Gayle Earley. “We are welcoming our dive coach Virginia King to our team family, and the team has seven beginning divers.”
The swim team, on the other hand, returns a group of experienced swimmers, led by senior captains Sam Bagge and Bailey Duran.
“I have a really seasoned team,” said Earley. “Everybody is coming back and they’ve all swam competitively before.”
Bagge is back after qualifying for state last season in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. She was also a part of the Lady Panthers’ state qualifying 200-yard freestyle relay team, which included returning sophomore Jenna Barner.
“Sam is going to be a strong individual probably in the 100 fly, 100 back, 100 free and 50 free,” Earley explained. “I see Jenna Free going far in the 50 free, the 100 free and the 100 breast.”
Earley also views sisters Bailey and Caisey Duran as key contributors.
“Bailey Duran, who is a senior this year, is going to target the 500 free and the 200 free,” she said. “Caisey Duran, who is a junior, is also looking really competitive this year. And she’s going to go after the 100 back and try to break her own record time that she holds at the high school.”
Because there have only been two swim and dive divisions in the past – Class 4A and Class 5A – M-CHS had been competing in the Class 4A division.
However, this season the Colorado High School Activities Association has added a class 3A division, where the Lady Panthers are now slotted.
The drop in class doesn’t necessarily change the team’s schedule or competition, but it does affect its state qualifying times.
“We’re now swimming in the 3A category, so our state qualifying times are slightly lower than before,” said Earley. “State qualifying is based on time. So we are about, on average, three to five seconds slower than 4A times.”
The Lady Panthers’ main focus is advancing swimmers to the Class 3A State Championships, but Earley said their other focus is on the M-CHS record book.
“We’re going to aim for the 4A times, (with the goal of qualifying for state),” she said. “But another major goal is to beat the high school records. The relays are all aiming to beat records and a lot of the girls have individual goals to beat the records.”