The Mesa Verde Aquatics Club and Cortez Leopard Sharks both made the journey to Montrose last weekend for the Montrose Marlins Summer Open.
In a meet featuring 14 teams, both Cortez squads finished in the top half of combined team scores.
Starting with the Mesa Verde Aquatics Club’s top finishers, Piper Baxstrom, Mikayla Pena, Tessa Jackson and Erin Lawrence won the girls 10&under 200m medley relay together, and then each went on to place in the top four in individual events.
Baxstrom placed fourth in the 25m breaststroke, Pena was third in the 50m backstroke, Jackson took third in the 25m backstroke and fourth in the 25m freestyle and Lawrence racked up wins in the 25m free, 50m butterfly and 25m breast and placed second in the 25m fly, 50m breast and 25m back.
In the boys under ten divisions, Sawyer Muhonen placed third in the 25m backstroke, Zion Pena was second in the 25m free, Tyler Jackson won the 25m back and took third in the 25m free and Jared Michael Gripp won the 100m back, was second in the 50m fly and took fourth in the 100m IM.
Caroline Podgornoff placed fourth in the 100m fly against girls 11-12, and in the boys 13-14 division, Caleb Podgornoff finished third in both the 200m breast and 50m fly and Trent Bagge won the 50m fly, 50m free and 50m breast, took second in the 100m breast, 100m back and 100m free and finished in third place in the 100m IM.
Jenna Barner locked up a second place finish in the 200m IM, third place in the 200m back and fourth in the 50m free in the girls 13-14 group. And swimming in the girls 15&over division, Sam Bagge placed second in the 50m free, third in the 200m IM and fourth place in the 100m IM, 100m free and 100m back.
Once the club’s scores were combined, MVAC finished with 792 points and in fifth place.
Top finishers for the Leopard Sharks were Bailey and Caisey Duran, Ryan and Tyler Cutrone, Delta Suckla and Cody Farias.
Swimming in the 15&over division, Caisey Duran finished second in the 50m breaststroke and Bailey finished third. And then in the 200m breast, Bailey took third and Caisey followed in fourth.
Competing in the boys 15&over group, Ryan Cutrone took home a second place finish in the 200m breast and fourth in the 100m IM.
Tyler Cutrone (13-14 boys) won the 100m breast, 100m back, 100m IM, 200m breast, 200m IM and 400m free. He also finished second in the 50m free and third in both the 100 and 200m freestyle.
Suckla placed in the top three in six different events, and Farias placed top three in eight.
Suckla won the 25m breast, 50m breast and 100m breast, finished second in the 200m IM and placed third in the 100m free and 100m IM.
Farias won the 50m breast, 100m free, 100m fly, 100m IM, 200m free and 200m IM and took second in the 50m back and 100m breast.
The Leopard Sharks finished in seventh place with 676 combined team points.
Both the Leopard Sharks and MVAC will compete in the Western Slope League Championships this weekend at El Pomar Natatorium at Colorado Mesa University.
Complete results and season schedules can be found at: http://www.westernslopeleague.org/
