While Zoe Bartel had matriculated from Fossil Ridge High School to begin her freshman season at Stanford by the end of 2019, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame still deemed her worthy of being named their Colorado High School Athlete of the Year.
The annual awards, established in 1965, are voted on by the committee’s Selection Committee, with this year’s recipients being honored at the annual induction and awards banquet on April 3rd at the Denver City Center Hilton.
Bartel, who helped lead the 2018 SwimSwam High School Team of the Year Fossil Ridge to its 4th-straight state title during her senior season, winning the maximum 4 titles: in the 100 breast (1:00.47), the 200 IM (1:59.17), and as part of 2 Fossil Ridge relays.
Bartel hasn’t slowed down in college: she currently ranks 12th in the NCAA in the 200 breaststroke, and 3rd among freshmen behind only Noelle Peplowski of Indiana and Vanessa Pearl of Florida.
Bartel is just the 4th swimmer to win this award in Colorado, following Mark Dylla (2007), Missy Franklin (2010), and Bonnie Brandon (2012).
Franklin, a 5-time Olympic champion, will be inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in April as part of its 2018 induction class. Besides her High School Athlete of the Year award, Franklin has also been named Colorado’s Amateur Athlete of the Year twice: in 2011 and 2012.
Other swimmers honored in past years by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame with Athlete of the Year Awards include TJ Trump, who was given a Disabled Athlete Recognition Award in 2009; 6-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken, who was named the Amateur Athlete of the Year in 1994 and 1995; and George DiCarlo, who was named Amateur Athlete of the year in 1984 after winning a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics.