2019 COLORADO 5A CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Chatfield High School
- February 9th, 2019
- Results
Fairview defeated Fossil Ridge in a big way, just a year after Fossil Ridge scored the most points in Colorado HS championship history (424) to win it. Fairview, not to be outdone, came back with a vengeance, and topped the scoring table with a whopping 495.5 points, destroying that record Fossil Ridge had set last year when they also won 10 of 12 events. Fossil Ridge won by over 100 points over Fairview in 2018, while the results were flipped this year with Fairview winning by almost 120 points.
Fairview started the meet off with a win in the 200 medley relay. Despite strong back (25.48) and fly (23.62) legs from sisters Renee and Coleen Gillilan, respectively, Fairview’s Emma Weber had a huge 28.14 breaststroke split that helped them to the win over Fossil Ridge, 1:41.66 to 1:42.22.
Fossil Ridge had a great start to the meet in individual events, though. Senior C. Gillilan took the 200 free, going 1:47.61, while Fossil Ridge won the next event, the 200 IM. Freshman Lucy Bell nearly broke two minutes, going 2:00.06 to win by over four seconds. C. Gillilan was back to take the 500 free (4:56.05), while freshman R. Gillilan led a 1-2 finish with Bell in the 100 fly, as they went 52.95 and 53.64, respectively.
R. Gillilan was denied a 2nd win in the 100 back, as Lewis-Palmer senior Meredith Rees swam to the wall first (53.71) just ahead of Gillilan (53.76). That was Rees’s 2nd win, as she had earlier gone 23.16 to win the 50.
While Fossil Ridge had their performance last year go so well thanks to so many individual event wins, Fairview only won the 200 relays and the 100 breast, instead relying on depth. For example, while Fossil Ridge went 1-2 in the 100 fly, Fairview had four girls in that A final.
Emma Weber won the 100 breast for Fairview, going 1:02.04 to edge Regis Jesuit junior Sophia Bradac (1:02.48). Weber, a freshman, was the sole individual event winner for Fairview.
Fossil Ridge won the 400 free relay (3:23.66) to finish out the meet in 2nd, just 6.5 points ahead of Regis Jesuit. Notable splits there were a 50.47 3rd leg from Bell and a 48.93 anchor from C. Gillilan.
SCORES (TOP 5)
- Fairview 495.5
- Fossil Ridge 378
- Regis Jesuit 371.5
- Cherry Creek 259.5
- Arapahoe 221
CHSAA changed the number of finalists from 16 to 20 this year. This means the 1st place finisher scores 24 instead of 20 points (48 instead of 40 for relays), so the overall point totals will be a lot higher than in previous years.