Tonight, the Greeley West girls swim team opens its season with a home non-conference matchup against Horizon at 3:30 at the Greeley Recreation Center.

The Spartans look forward to a strong winter season this year, especially as they dropped to 4A for competition. The Spartans finished last season with a 2-4 record and six seniors left the swim team.

Three senior returners and a handful of underclassmen feel confident in 4A, because the state qualifying times are much slower than those in 5A. While the competition in the conference is still very difficult, hopefully more will have a chance to qualify by their times.

West has a lot of girls swim year-round, so they will definitely be more than ready this winter season. Mara Johnson and Grace Chahal are freshman who swim year round, and look to accomplish big things this season. Last year, sophomore Josie Carpenter, who attends Union Colony, qualified for the postseason and swam at the 5A state meet.

Junior Elise Johnson is another leader on the team who qualified for State and placed 8^th in her category.