{"id":2446730,"date":"2019-07-24T22:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T04:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-swim-club-wins-another-western-slope-title-prepares-for-big-end-of-season-meets\/"},"modified":"2019-07-24T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T04:56:00","slug":"aspen-swim-club-wins-western-slope-again-prepares-for-big-end-of-season-meets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-swim-club-wins-western-slope-again-prepares-for-big-end-of-season-meets\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Swim Club wins Western Slope again, prepares for big end-of-season meets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5146666666667\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-310008-49\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/swimming-atd-072519-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/swimming-atd-072519-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times | Aspen Swim Club athletes practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11\">\n<p><strong>Aspen Swim Club athletes practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/swimming-atd-072519-1.jpg\" alt=\"Aspen Swim Club athletes practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/swimming-atd-072519-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/swimming-atd-072519-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times | Aspen Swim Club coach Tom Jager leads practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11\">\n<p><strong>Aspen Swim Club coach Tom Jager leads practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/07\/swimming-atd-072519-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Aspen Swim Club coach Tom Jager leads practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-swim-club-wins-another-western-slope-title-prepares-for-big-end-of-season-meets\/?#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-swim-club-wins-another-western-slope-title-prepares-for-big-end-of-season-meets\/?#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">The Aspen Swim Club may have new coaches, but the beat marches on in terms of its recent dominance this side of the Rockies. Earlier this month, the Speedos won their seventh straight Western Slope Championship, held July 12 to 14 in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThat was a really good meet,\u201d coach Tom Jager said. \u201cIt was a great experience for everybody. I think the team is coming together. We are starting to feel like we are on our path.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Jager, who is one of the most decorated Olympic swimmers in U.S. history and was the former head coach at Washington State University, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/olympian-tom-jager-wife-becky-take-over-as-aspen-swim-club-coaches\/\">took over the Aspen job in the spring alongside his wife, Becky<\/a>. They took over the spot Gordon Gerson stepped down from after a long run in charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen had five smaller meets this summer before their Western Slope win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a big change, but I like them a lot,\u201d Aspen swimmer Lillie Boggs said of the new coaches. \u201cThey are super positive and encouraging and I\u2019m enjoying my summer, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">The streak lives on<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen won the Western Slope Championship with 2,683 points, comfortably ahead of runner-up Durango (2,070) and third-place Maverick Aquatics (2,055.5). Factored into that point total was the 8-and-under championship, which is run as a separate meet. Aspen also won that with 369 points, holding off Steamboat Springs (346).<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lillie Boggs, 14, Gavin Boggs, 11, and Maya Khan-Farooqi, 8, all were high-point winners in their respective age and gender groups for Aspen. Numerous others recorded top-three finishes, including many race winners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe are starting to feel good as a team and the kids are swimming great. Great leadership,\u201d Tom Jager said. \u201cAt the 8-and-under meet, it\u2019s its own entity, and we had half of our senior group helping with the 8-and-unders, and then they went and swam their own championship meet. It is a great environment to have young boys and girls in together, training hard, learning how to work with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">The future of swimming<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">These last couple of weeks of the summer long-course season will be the biggest for a few of the Aspen swimmers still competing. A group of four will head to the 12-and-under state championships this weekend back in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Two others \u2014 Kayla Tehrani and Laila Khan-Farooqi \u2014 will head to senior zones in Clovis, California, next week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">One swimmer, 14-year-old Bennett Jones, was picked to join a contingent from Colorado at the 2019 Western Zone Age Group Championship in Oregon from Aug. 7 to 10.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The biggest of the meets is Aug. 1 to 4 in Des Moines, Iowa, at the 2019 USA Swimming Futures Championships. Lillie Boggs and Shea Card will compete for Aspen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cUp to this point, this will be the biggest meet I\u2019ve gone to,\u201d Card said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to approach meets like that, because when you approach them like \u2018this is my biggest meet ever,\u2019 you get in a bad head space. It may be really important to you, but you can\u2019t let it be really important to you until after that race is over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Futures is a significant competition and is seen as the start of the path toward the Olympics. After Futures, swimmers can compete at Junior Nationals, then Senior Nationals, and then it\u2019s onto the Olympic trials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">This will be a first-time trip to Futures for both Boggs and Card.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cShea has been swimming great,\u201d Jager said. \u201cShea had best times at Western Slope Championship and he\u2019s been training great all year. So he\u2019s getting ready to go to Futures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Card, who will be a junior at Basalt High School this fall, plans to compete in the 100 free, 200 free and 200 back at Futures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lillie Boggs actually qualified for Junior Nationals this season in the 200 breaststroke, which came as a bit of a surprise. She will save her Junior Nationals debut for next summer, however, in order to focus on Futures in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis year she is staying in the Futures, swimming the full format, hopefully getting some second swims,\u201d Jager said. \u201cThere will be a lot of other great 14-year-olds. That\u2019s why they call it Futures. This is the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Boggs, who will be a freshman at Aspen High School this fall and is expected to be a key piece of the AHS girls swim team come winter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/lillie-boggs-continues-to-shine-for-aspen-swim-club-after-age-group-championships\/\">has already established herself as one of the best distance swimmers for her age in Colorado history<\/a>, particularly in the mile. Futures will simply provide her another chance to stand out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s a really good opportunity to go out and swim my hardest and have fun. I\u2019m really excited about it and I\u2019m happy to do it,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to try and go next year (to Junior Nationals) and swim there and hopefully I can get a couple more qual times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:acolbert@aspentimes.com\">acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/aspen-swim-club-wins-another-western-slope-title-prepares-for-big-end-of-season-meets\/?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aspen Swim Club athletes practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times Aspen Swim Club coach Tom Jager leads practice on Wednesday, July 24, 2019, at the Aspen Recreation Center. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times Show CaptionsHide Captions The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 22:25:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}