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Lillie Boggs, Shea Card lead Aspen Swim Club at state championships

Aspen Swim Club coach Gordon Gerson instructs Bennett Jones, Emily Kinney, Kayla Tehrani and Laila Khan-Farooqi during last weekend's state swim meet in Thornton.
Courtesy photo

Led by Lillie Boggs and Shea Card, the Aspen Swim Club held its own at the 2018 Colorado Swimming Senior Long Course State Championships over the weekend in Thornton. The Speedos finished 16th overall, with the girls finishing 12th. The July 20-22 meet was swam at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center and won by Fort Collins.

“In the progression of Western Slope, which we wanted to win as a team, to the California meet next week when we want to go as fast as possible, it went really well,” Aspen coach Gordon Gerson said. “Actually a whole lot of lifetime bests.”

Boggs, 13, and Card, 15, each had four top-10 finishes in the highly competitive 13-and-over meet. Boggs had the best finish of any Aspen swimmer, taking second in the girls 14-and-under 800 free with a time of 9 minutes, 42.68 seconds. She also finished third in the mile, fourth in the 400 IM and seventh in the 400 free.



“That’s a pretty awesome swim for somebody in the 13-14 age group who literally turned 13 in June,” Gerson said of Boggs’s 800 free time. “It’s a very long meet. It was highly attended and sessions were really long. The kids did a really good job of cheering each other on and keeping the spirits up.”

Card’s best finish was third in the boys 15-and-over 400 free with a time of 4:21.37. He also finished fourth in the 400 IM, seventh in the 100 back and eighth in the 200 free. Davy Brown, 17, had the only other top-10 finish for the Speedos, taking 10th in the girls 15-and-over 200 back.




“Pretty impressive competition. There were a lot of really fast swimmers at this meet. Fort Collins has become a national powerhouse,” Gerson said. “We are getting better, but Colorado as a whole is getting better, too.”

Aspen swimmers Emily Driscoll, Bennett Jones, Laila Kahn-Farooqi and Kayla Tehrani all scored, meaning they finished in the top 24 of at least one of their events. Emily Kinney also competed in the state meet.

This upcoming weekend will be the 12-and-under state championships, held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Aspen will send six swimmers to that meet. The majority of the older swimmers who competed this past weekend will head to the July 31-Aug. 4 Arena Western Zone Senior Championships in Clovis, California, to wrap up their summer season.

“Getting a second swim at that is going to be quite the challenge,” Gerson said.

acolbert@aspentimes.com