Adams State Continues to Set School Records

In a day dominated by the Division I Colorado State University Rams, the first-year Adams State College women's swimming team recorded some of their best efforts of the young season as four new school records were established while redshirt freshman Madison Hill (Tucson, Ariz.) and freshman Chandler Osborne (Buena Vista, Colo.) both went faster than the previous mark in the 50-yard freestyle on the second day of the Rocky Mountain Invitational, held Saturday afternoon here at the Colorado School of Mines Natatorium.

Lauren Griffin (Puyallup, Wash.), who led the team with a seventh place finish in the 200-yard butterfly, Annissa Jones (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Jessica Palacio (Albuquerque, N.M.) also established new Grizzly records in individual events while Osborne, Griffin, Bettina Seler (San Antonio, Texas) and Hill combined to establish the ASC mark in the meet-concluding 200-yard freestyle relay.

The Rams broke eight pool records and won all 11 of the swimming events and went 1-2-3 in nine of them as they posted team scoring wins over all four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams and both the University of Colorado and Metro State club teams in the 7-team meet that included round-robin dual-meet scoring.

The Grizzlies, again with just six swimmers in the lineup, fell to Colorado State (174-20), Mesa State (185-26), Colorado Mines (125-62) and Nebraska-Kearney (133-50) but had many highlights of their own.

Palacio was the first Grizzly to break a record in the afternoon as she swam the opening backstroke leg of ASC's 200-yard medley relay in 31.29 seconds as the Grizzlies finished ninth with an overall time of 2:10.88.  Palacio's time was three one-hundredths of a second faster than her relay split from a week prior at the Denver University Relays.

Osborne and Jones were the next to swim as they contested the 200-yard freestyle.  Osborne finished 15th in 2:21.67 while Jones took 16th in 2:22.88.

Hill then turned in a 17th place finish in the 50-yard freestyle as she posted a time of 27.46, an impressive 3.04 seconds faster than the school-record of 30.50 set Friday night by Jones.  CSU had the top five and 12 of the top 13 swimmers in the individual event that also saw Seler finish 27th in with a time of 31.74.

Palacio then claimed her second school record of the day as she finished 11th in the 400-yard individual while establishing the Grizzly mark of 5:23.09.

After a diving break, Griffin posted ASC's new mark of 2:31.05 in the 200-yard butterfly as she finished ahead of five RMAC rivals and behind just four Rams and two Mesa State swimmers.

Jones then turned in a 13th place, 100-yard freestyle time of 1:05.79, second fastest in six combined tries by the Grizzlies this season before Seler took 11th place in the 500-yard freestyle by touching in 7:02.11.

Jones then established the new ASC record in the 200-yard breaststroke as she finished 20th in 3:02.72 before Osborne, Griffin, Seler and Hill combined for a time of 1:54.47.  Osborne swam the opening leg in 28.80 seconds, while Griffin led the team with a relay split of 26.92 aided by her first-exchange start.

Coach Rebecca Sturdy's Grizzlies are now off for nearly a month before they host Mesa State in their only home dual of the season on Nov. 14 in Plachy Hall.