Mustangs 5th at Centennial meet

By Neil H. Devlin, Mullen Sports Information Director
Clode has big meet.
CENTENNIAL – Improvement continued on Saturday for Mullen girls swimming and diving.
At the Centennial League Championships held at Arapahoe, the Mustangs finished fifth, a jump of a spot from a year ago. And keep in mind the Mustangs were the only Class 4A team against seven others in 5A.
Plus, a few outstanding individual and relay efforts were highlights heading into this week’s 4A state meet,
Tops was Lindsey Sowitch, who won the 200-yard individual medley. The sophomore cruised to a time of 2 minutes, 9.96 seconds.
“Coming in, I was a little nervous,” Sowitch said. In lanes next to her were club teammates Madison Saldanha (Cherry Creek) and Miri Griffin (Arapahoe), she said, “so I kind of knew their strategy.”
But she said she was right around her best time “and I’m surprised, more happy than anything.”
She edged Saldanha by .17.
Sowitch also joined with Gabrielle Zinis, Claire Chahbandour and Sofia Zinis to take third in the 200 freestyle relay, 1:39.62, and was fifth in the 100 butterfly, 59.96..
At state, Sowitch said she will be in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly individually, and join teammates in relays.
Micaela Clode also shone in the water. She teamed with Chahbandour, Sowitch and S. Zinis to grab second in the opening race of the finals, the 200 medley relay. They finished in 1:47.64. Clode added a second in the 100 backstroke, 100.07.
In addition, Clode, Taylor Nielson, G. Zinis and Anarose Schwamm were fifth in the 400 free relay, 3:53.87.
Chahbandour, too, added a couple of thirds, in the 100 freestyle, 54.74, and the 100 breaststroke, 1:06.07.
S. Zinis was second in the 500 free, 24.85, and Juliana Zinis was fourth in diving with 447.30 points.
Clode said the team was excited about its chances in this week’s finale.
“Oh, yeah, we think we’ll able to do well in 4A,” she said. “I don’t know if we can win it with some of those teams having bigger (rosters), but we definitely can win a lot of the individual races.”
At the Centennial, perennial power Cherry Creek won with 987 points to the host Warriors’ 851. Grandview was third with 664.5 and Cherokee Trail fifth (559). Mullen had 501.
The 4A state meet will be Thursday-Friday at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton and the Mustangs have 15 qualifiers.
 
                                                                                                                                      Photo by John Leyba, Mullen Sports Photographer
Lindsey Sowitch and the Mullen Mustangs are set for postseason swimming and diving over the enxt two weekends.
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