Cheyenne Mountain swims home with Metro League title

After six years, Cheyenne Mountain’s championship banner collection finally has a new addition. And the Indians took a celebratory dip in their home pool to mark the moment.

Bolstered by a pair of victories from junior Ashley Forsyth and a triumph in the 400-yard freestyle relay to end the day, Cheyenne Mountain won its first Colorado Springs Metro League meet since 2004, amassing 420 points to outdistance Lewis-Palmer (352) and three-time defending champion Rampart (306.5).

“I really believed in our team coming together,” said an elated Forsyth, the defending state champion in the 500 free. “We knew we could do it, and we all got excited from all the competition. We really fed off that.”

Second-year coach Kate Doane made sure her entire team, which finished third at last year’s CSML meet, got wet afterward.

“I told them if I went in, they all had to go in with me,” Doane said. “Then again, that’s the way it should have been. This is a dream for us. These girls had many goals in mind this year. This was one of them. The next one is state.”

Danielle Wahl added to Cheyenne Mountain’s big day with a win in the 100 butterfly.

“Last year, we finished strong and really had a lot of momentum,” Doane said. “That strong finish gave us a lot of energy heading into this season.”

While Rampart’s run of CSML titles ended, the Rams still dazzled in winning two relays and four individual events, setting three meet records along the way.

“We may not have won, but we’re still fast,” coach Pat Burch said.

Rampart started the day by breaking its meet record in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 52.67 seconds, and later won the 200 free relay in a meet-record 1:41.33. Jenna Gregoire, the two-time defending state champion in the 100 free, won at that distance and also in the 50 free — in a meet-record 24.23 seconds — while teammate and fellow senior Kyrene Clark took top honors in her signature events, the 100 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley.

“We knew Cheyenne Mountain was clearly the stronger team,” Gregoire said. “Their girls really stepped up.”

Lewis-Palmer, led by a diving victory from Chandler Marshall and five runner-up finishes, piled up the points to take second. Doherty, behind a Sarah James victory in the 100 backstroke and a pair of second-place finishes in the 50 and 100 free from Caitlin Johnson, finished fourth, a five-place jump from last year.