SWIMMING

junior Finley Anderson said of the Cougars’ dynasty. “ ere is obviously pressure to get another state title every year, but the main goal is e scaled-back project includes pedestrian crossing improvements at the intersections of Bear Creek Avenue and Park Street, including removing the tra c signal, Mill Street and Market Street. It also looks at adding an LED sign on the east end of town to advertise town events, and highlight businesses and attractions.

While the town is working with CDOT on preliminary plans, there also be community outreach to learn what Morrison residents want to do to help make the downtown area safer. None of the plans is set in stone.

Town planner Carrie McCool has told the board that criteria for the improvements will be whether the community wants them, do they slow tra c, and are they pedestrian friendly and ADA compliant. CDOT also will look at tra c statistics including crash data, and businesses will be surveyed about how they use Bear Creek Avenue.

Trustees in November were concerned that the original project would go over budget, so they asked o cials to see whether refusing the to have fun and enjoy each other. It is fun working hard with people that you like.”

Evergreen is now tied for second with Mullen for the most girls swim and dive state championships with seven. e Cougars won back-toback 4A state titles in 2014 and 2015 before its current run on ve straight grant or scaling back the project were options.

McCool said when she met with CDOT o cials, they told her the town could apply for additional funding if it needed it. She said it would raise CDOT’s eyebrows if the town turned down the money e title came with the third head coach for Evergreen over the past three years. Longtime coach Liz Hudd coached the Cougars to 3A titles in 2019, 2020 and 2021 before retiring. Lisa Morrow stepped in as the Cougars’ head coach last season, and this year Steve Schneiter took over.

3A championships that began in 2019.

“It’s been crazy. I’ve known Liz for a really long time since I was about 10 years old. I knew Lisa a little bit because I swam with her daughter on the same team,” Anderson said of both former head coaches who were on hand Saturday night to help the Cougars celebrate. “I didn’t know Steve at all until this season, but he has been great. He has de nitely adapted to our team a lot. It was fun getting to know him and hopefully he comes back next year.” e Cougars nished with 443 team points, edging out last year’s team total of 422. Discovery Canyon went home with the state runner-up trophy racking up 333 points. Glenwood Springs nished third with 310 points. e Cougars had six individuals in because it got funding in the rst round, beating out other towns for the grants. e town will contract with Toole Design for the preliminary and the nal design and more once the community has been consulted. e cost is estimated to be $90,555. multiple A heat nals.

Freshman Tally Riddle (200 and 500 freestyle), junior Aspen Fisher (200 IM and 500 freestyle), junior Kileigh Ackerman (50 freestyle and 100 backstroke), sophomore Maya Patel (100 butter y and 100 backstroke) and junior Riley Rains (100 butter y and 100 breaststroke) were all in multiple championship heats.

“ ere was a lot of pressure with the number of state titles we have,” Schneiter said after guiding the Cougars this season. “I knew we had a great team to build upon and continue to take it to the next level.”

Anderson came in attempting to repeat as the individual state champion in the 100 butter y and 100 backstroke. Anderson — who has verbally committed to swim at the University of California, Berkeley — had no problem defending her individual titles.

She won the butter y in a time of 55.35 seconds. Anderson then repeated in the backstroke by breaking the 3A state record that she had set the previous day during preliminaries. Her time of 54.10 seconds is now just a little more than a second o the all-Colorado state record of legend Missy Franklin.

“It’s crazy. I’m committed to the same college she went to,” Anderson said of Franklin, who set the 100 backstroke record with a time of 52.30 seconds in 2011 swimming for Regis. “Missy is someone all of us looked up to. It is fun to be in her shadow still, but fun to see those records and maybe it’s a possibility one day.”

Anderson has one more year of high school left to try to chase down more records.

“Great performances by Finley in both the 100 y and 100 back,” Schneiter said. “She is an extremely talented athlete who puts the work in. She truly understands what it takes to be a next caliber athlete.”

Another record-setting performance on Saturday night was from St. Mary’s Academy junior Caitlin Crysel. She broke her own 3A record in the 200 IM that she set last year. Crysel swam a time of 2:04.38, almost a minute faster than her time last year in the nals.

Still, the night belonged to the Cougars who got o to a great start before the swim events even started. Sophomore Ailish Ocasek, senior Julia Swanke and freshman Eliza ompson got things going for the Cougars.

Evergreen’s trio of divers racked up 30 team points during the Saturday morning dive competition. Ocasek (8th), Swanke (10th) and ompson (19th) provided some nice early points before the swim nals.

Swanke was the only Evergreen diver to place in the top-20 last year. e swimming started with the Cougars repeating as state champs in the 200 medley relay. Anderson, Rains, Ackerman and senior Alyssa Cook combined for a winning time of 1:48.79.

Evergreen’s girls swim and dive team racked up 443 points during the Class 3A state meet at the Veteran’s Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton. The Cougars won the team title by more than 100 points over Discovery Canyon.

“It was so bittersweet,” Cook said after the Cougars wrapped up their fth straight 3A. “I will never forget my time swimming for Evergreen. e last four years have been amazing.” Cook and Anderson are best friends. Anderson also added that it was sad to swim in the last meet with Evergreen’s current seniors.

“Everyone works super hard on their club teams and with our high school team,” Cook said. “We had some fast freshmen coming in. It was amazing to nish out the season with them at state. It was so cool.”

Dennis Pleuss is the Sports Information Director for Je co Public Schools. For more Je co coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.

Becoming and remaining part of a group is more than a choice. It is a demand of the human psyche. For all the blather about individualism, a tenet of secular American religiosity, belonging is the dominant human social gene. It is as instinctive to human behavior as walking, eating, and copulating. In fact, individualism is not part of the human social genome. It is a relatively modern idea, a philosophy, a choice birthed during the Age of Enlightenment.

More than we need to belong, we want to belong. Belonging to a group fosters good mental health and social cohesion, which is requisite for survival. Unbelonging induces loneliness, which leads to despair. One of the worst punishments that can be imposed on someone for not following a group’s rules is banishment or ostracization. Whether political exile, solitary con nement, or shunning, forced separation from a group or society can cause deep distress and potentially irreparable harm.

While some groups wither away, others last long after current mem-