The Steamboat Springs trio of Zoe Anfang, Evie Gruben and Anna Richman traveled to Thornton for the state swim meet on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10-11. 

While Steamboat Springs High School does not offer an official swim team, the girls combine with Moffat County and Meeker for competition, putting them in the 3A classification. 

With preliminaries on Friday and the finals on Saturday, the three Steamboat freshmen had a lot of time in the pool over the weekend. It can be taxing on their bodies, especially in the longer distance events. 

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Competing in the 500-yard freestyle, both Anfang and Gruben had to swim 20 lengths of the pool in back-to-back days, which Steamboat Springs Swim Team coach Charlie Coates said is no easy feat.

“Zoe swam a prelim time in the 500, then came back literally less than 24-hours later and swam the 500 again in a faster time,” Coates said. “The fact she was able to drop time in less than 24 hours is so awesome.”

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Anfang’s 5 minute, 32 second time granted her sixth place in the competition, the first girls top-10 finish at state for any Moffat County-represented swimmer in a decade. 

Outside of individual events, the girls competed as part of multiple relay teams with their 400-yard freestyle relay making it past preliminaries and onto the finals. 

The relay began with Gruben, followed up with Richman, third was Moffat County’s Megan Neton while Anfang anchored for the group. 

Overall, the girls took 16th place while cutting their previous best time down by three seconds to close the high school season with a time of 4:07.86. 

“In the relay, they all worked together,” Coates said. “They got really good relay starts, and they’ve just built this strong little team which has been so fun to watch.”

With the completion of the girls high school swim season, all eyes turn to the Steamboat Springs Swim Team, which will focus back onto club meets for the coming weeks while competing under USA Swimming regulations.

Coates hopes to see the girls finish out the competition season strong for the club and cannot wait to see what they accomplish over the next few weeks. 

“These girls have been putting in so much hard work with in-water training, as well as a strength program led by OTHS’ Joanne Orce,” Coates said. “It’s the best feeling to watch all that hard work come together at championship meets.”

To reach Tom Skulski, call 970-871-4240, email tskulski@SteamboatPilot.com.