Madison Mintenko Carries Pine Creek to First Colorado Girls 4A Title in Program History

2023 CHSAA Girls 4A State Championships

• Feb. 7-9, 2023
• Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center
  • Thornton, Colorado
• SCY (25 yards)
• Preview
• Class 5A Recap
• Full Results

With two-time defending champion Heritage now out of the picture as a member of Class 5A, Pine Creek sophomore Madison Mintenko seized the opportunity and led the Eagles to their first-ever 4A team title at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center on Thursday night.

Class 4A is the middle of three classification levels in Colorado, and includes the state’s mid-sized schools.

Mintenko, the daughter of three-time Olympic medalist and current USA Swimming National Team managing director Lindsay (Benko) Mintenko, put on a show at her second state championship meet. She began her day by clocking a 1:45.93 in the 200 free, defending her title while breaking a 4A record set by Eryn Eddy (1:46.95) back in 2015.

In the 500 free, she also defended her title in record-setting fashion as she lowered her own 4A record from Wednesday’s prelims. She swam 4:51.63 in the heats and followed that with a 4:47.70 in finals. The old 4A record belonged to Mary Codevilla from Niwot High School, who swam 4:51.98 in 2021. Franklin still holds the overall record at a 4:41 from 2013.

The scariest part is that Mintenko can go even faster. At Winter Juniors in December, she went 1:45.66 in the 200 free and 4:42.56 in the 500 free. At 15 years old, those times already rank 50th and 55th, respectively, in the girls 15-16 national age group (NAG).

Mintenko had little time to recover following her individual events, hopping right back in the pool to anchor Pine Creek’s victorious 200 freestyle relay team (1:36.81) with a 22.42 split. A few events later, she capped off the meet with her fourth win of the session in the 400 free relay (3:30.12), anchoring the squad with a 49.73 split.

“Madison is a once-in-a-generation athlete,” Pine Creek head coach Kent Nelson said. “As a sophomore, she is one of the true leaders on the team. She’s really stepped up to show these girls the way to do this. As a coach, it’s a truly special thing to be able to watch her do this, we watch in awe as much as anybody else.”

Cheyenne Mountain senior Caroline Bricker upped her career total of individual titles to seven with wins in the 200 IM (1:58.49) and 100 breast (1:00.20). Her 200 IM title was her fourth in a row as the Stanford commit took down her own 4A record of 1:59.34 from last year. Bricker’s 100 breast time also represented a new record, lowering Mary Codevilla’s mark from last year.

Niwot senior Jamie Legh finished off her high school career with a pair of state titles in the 100 fly (54.29) and 100 back (54.65). It was redemption for the Dartmouth College commit after earning runner-up finishes in both of those events last year.

A few schools snapped long title droughts with their wins last week. Highlands Ranch junior Renee Burton reached the wall first in the 50 free (23.44), giving the Falcons their first individual champion since 2007. Longmont junior Jordan Bindseil triumphed in the 100 free (51.57), the Trojans’ first 4A champion since 2005 and first individual victory overall since 2018.

Monarch also kicked off the session with a win in the 200 medley relay, marking the first relay championship in program history. Monarch sophomore Gwyneth Christensen (28.27), freshman Audrey Shambo (30.02), senior Mia Prater (25.57), and sophomore Eliza Lennox (23.49) combined for a final time of 1:47.35 to beat Bricker’s Cheyenne Mountain quartet by more than a second.