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Valor Christian came into the Jefferson County 4A league swimming championship meet highly favored and that's just the way the Eagles kept it. Now, they hope to continue on their run for the state championship.

Valor Christian, coached by Lori Stenstrom, tallied 546.5 points in their domination winning nine events in the Myers Pool in Arvada. The Eagles were able to outpoint runner-up Evergreen, which tallied 495, and third-place D'Evelyn, 216.5. And it could also be called a mother-daughter day.

Sisters Brooke and Lindsay Stenstrom certainly did their mother and Valor teammates proud as they each won their individual events. Brooke won the 50 freestyle in 24.3 seconds while Lindsay won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:55.41. And in both cases were they closely challenged.

It was certainly a close one for Lindsay as she was able to outreach D'Evelyn's Abbey Selin, 1:55.73, in the 200. It took the officials a bit of time to make sure they had the right times for the girls. To be sure, their qualifying times were also just a blink away with Stenstrom coming in with 1:57.94, Selin, the quicker this time, 1:57.63.

Selin was once again involved in a tough race in the 500 freestyle against Valor Christian's Abbey Owenby. And this time, the two swimmers did get credit for a tie as they both swam 5:07.43.

"I just went out hard from the beginning and it certainly was a fun race overall," said Selin. "What a challenge this has been for our team, and we've done well. A tie, this is hard to believe in the distance of this race."

Hard to believe for Owenby, too.

"I raced her last year, and a tie out here has been surprising and fun," said Owenby. "It just turned out to be a great race. I'm glad we were able tie in such a long race. This has probably never been done here like this and ties at this distant don't usually happen."

Owenby picked up her second victory of the meet winning the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:09.62. Here, it was a touch that enabled her to beat Golden's Sabrina Sabadeanu, who swam 2:09.98.

"I'm really excited and had a lot of fun this weekend," Owenby said. "It has been a fun season, too. I was confident that we could win as a team today and this is just super cool. I thank God. It was just a great race today, and I want to continue strong to state."

Brooke defeated Evergreen's Katelyn Kenchel, who was clocked in :24.77 and again, it was the reach for the wall that paid off.

"It was just an awesome day, and everyone had that awesome day," said Brooke. "We worked hard before we came and once we got here. Our coach was certainly behind us and helped make this to be so much fun. It's just a blessing, and I couldn't be happier right now."

Brooke also swam the anchor leg on Valor's winning 200 Medley Relay's winning team. The Eagles were clocked in 1:48.53 to beat runner up Evergreen's 1:52.01. She was joined in the winning effort by Raili Carter, Brook Landt and Madison Hoen.

"I'm so proud of our girls and it's just amazing how well they were able to work," said Valor coach Lori Stenstrom. "They love each other. We just want to go hard and keep our positive attitudes and continue to do well at state."

Evergreen came away with a pair of champions with Christina Crane winning the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:06.56 to Valor Christian's Brook Landt, 1:07.31.

"I'm surprised a little bit to win it," said Crane. "I've been hard at work on my breaststroke for the last two years. I haven't done this well in two years and I'm certainly faster than last year."

Diving was completed with both classifications at the same time off the same boards. A Four-A entrant would dive first, then a 5A diver second in the rounds. In all, there were 42 competitors. And, it was interesting to watch the divers follow this particular format.

In this case, Evergreen's Bailey Mills came through to win the lengthy competition in 4A. She was able to score 513.25 points to beat her teammate, Katrin Lewis, who scored 501.60.

"This was a great meet for me and it was very exciting," said Mills. "It's great that I'm going to state. I just wanted to be a little more focused. The key is to have fun. State will be great and we hope to win. I'm going to go to college at Virginia for Business and to minor in health science."

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