LOVELAND — The annual Colorado Coaches Invitational swim meet is always a great opportunity for the athletes to see where they stack up, and how their competition is looking.

And Saturday’s event at Mountain View High School was no different - while competitors got to watch individual defending state champions Shelley Perkins of Chatfield, Loren Brandon of Cherry Creek, and Taylor Curado of Rock Canyon win their respective events in an impressive fashion, some got their first peek at freshman sensation Bonnie Brandon of Cherry Creek.

The 6-foot-4-inch Brandon, who competed in the summer’s Olympic Trials, didn’t disappoint. She won the 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke, and the Bruins’ victorious 200 and 400 freestyle relays, leading Cherry Creek to a team victory in the Class 5A division with 314 points, ahead of Regis Jesuit (243) and Fairview (204-½.)

Rock Canyon won the Class 4A division with 167 points, ahead of Broomfield (83) and Cheyenne Mountain (67.)

“It was really exciting and really fun for me,” Brandon said. “There are a lot of girls here that I swim against in my meets for my club team, and to be able to beat them here is really exciting and motivational for me because then I know that for Colorado, I can be the best in the state.”

Brandon said that she discovered she had asthma and some serious food allergies earlier this year, and once she got her condition under control, her swimming improved. And while she competed in the Olympic Trials in the backstroke, she is very versatile and says she isn’t sure what events she is going to focus on for the end of the season.

“Backstroke is my strength, and lately I’ve been doing really well in the sprinting, which is kind of surprising,” she said. “And at the Junior National meet last weekend, I dropped like 12 seconds in the 500 freestyle, so my distance free is going well too.”

The biggest obstacle she’ll have in the 500 freestyle for Colorado, is the challenge from her older sister Loren, who won Saturday’s event easy, with a time of 5 minutes, 3.84 seconds ahead of Regis Jesuit’s Alyssa Swanson (5:09.73) and Cheyenne Mountain’s Ashley Forstythe (5:11.27.) And even though she dominated the event last season before winning the event at the Class 5A state meet, Loren Brandon won’t say that she is the favorite for the 500 freestyle this season.

“It’s my event for now, but you never know who is going to swim it at the end of the season, you never know what might happen” said Brandon, who finished seventh in the event’s 200 freestyle, and was on the Bruins’ 400 freestyle relay squad. “But it was good to get in there and swim it better. My 200 (freestyle) was so slow (Saturday), and I’m so much more comfortable in the 500, so it was really nice to swim and win it.”

And Perkins was thrilled with her double victory, taking the titles in the 50 and 100 freestyle races.

“I was really excited for it, and I really wanted to do well (Saturday), because this event is sort of like a preview for how state is going to go, and so I’m glad I got myself out there and got some of my best times,” said Perkins, who won the Class 5A title in the 50 freestyle last year. Her time of 24.00 tied her personal-best time, while her time of 52.00 in the 100 freestyle marked her best-ever performance in the event. “I think everyone has their own races, and so you just get out there and swim your own race and hope that it goes well.”

And for Curado, last season’s Rocky Mountain News All-Colorado swimmer of the year, her time of 55.82 in the 100 butterfly - the event she has two Class 4A state titles - surprised everyone, including herself.

“It was definitely unexpected,” Curado said. “My only goal was to maybe go for 56-seconds, because I’ve never got to 56 here in Colorado and that’s my best time. So I beat my best time by almost a second. I couldn’t believe it.”

Curado said that the stress of trying to make her college decision and the added pressure she put on herself has made the first portion of the season pretty bumpy. But now with her signing at Rutgers University and her performance on Saturday, Curado is looking forward to the rest of her senior season.

“I’ve kind of had a difficult season leading up to this point so far, so this was definitely a confidence booster because my confidence was a little bit low,” Curado said. “I was really stressed. I wasn’t hitting any of the times I wanted. And I was just thinking too much. But now, well, I feel a lot better after tonight.”