Regis Jesuit boasts a team with tremendous depth, making the Raiders again the favorites for the Class 5A state title.
File photo by Ray Chen
A familiar refrain will prevail when the Class 5A boys swimming state finals begin Friday:
Regis Jesuit (Aurora) is the favorite. Everyone else is racing for second place.
With a wealth of depth few teams can approach, let alone match, the Raiders are expected to continue their dominance this weekend in Fort Collins at the Edora Pool Ice Center. Winners of 18 of the past 20 state meets, Regis Jesuit boasts the top seed time in both freestyle relay events and likely will feature multiple point-scorers in every event.
That said, there still will be plenty of drama within the individual races as well as the race for second place, as
Cherry Creek (Greenwood Village),
Loveland,
Lewis-Palmer (Monument), and
Highlands Ranch vie for position behind the front-running Raiders.
"My job is to keep a lid on everything and make sure our finishes are strong and our changes are good," Regis coach Mike Doherty said. "We have a lot of kids who are unsung heroes on this team."
Led by
Clark Smith and defending 50 freestyle state champion
Ben Fry the Raiders will be a threat to win all three relay events. But Cherry Creek should make things interesting in each of those races, and several Bruins standouts will be in the spotlight in a handful of races that could prove to be the highlights of the meet.
Cherry Creek junior
Daryl Turner, who has earned his U.S. Olympic Qualifying time in the 100 freestyle, will be the favorite in that event at state, but will face a stern challenge from
Chatfield (Littleton) senior
Bryce Carter. That pair turned in an epic race in the 50 freestyle at the annual
Colorado Coaches Invitational during the regular season, with Carter narrowly out-touching Turner at the wall.
Turner will swim the 100 freestyle and the backstroke, in which he owns the top seed time by more than 2 seconds over
Hennessey Stuart of Regis Jesuit.
"With the exception of maybe of two events, we could probably put him in any event and he would be right at the top," Cherry Creek coach Chris Loftis said. "We're cautiously optimistic because we understand the depth of Regis is going to be hard to overcome. But we're taking a huge team, too. It's definitely something to emulate for us."
In addition to Fry, Smith (100 butterfly), and Turner (100 freestyle), the 5A state finals will also feature another defending state champion in Lewis-Palmer senior
Ryan Arata (100 backstroke).
"I don't think anyone will be able to touch Regis. There's just too much depth," said Highlands Ranch coach Will Iaia,
whose club's 2010 state title is the only one not collected by Regis during the past 17 state meets. "(Top five) is definitely one of our goals. We'd like to be top three, but with Loveland moving up that throws a little wrench in things."
Highlights of the Class 4A meet, which will be held Friday and Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton, likely will include heated races in the distance events.
Mullen (Denver) is the defending team champion.
In the 200 freestyle, defending champion
Jeff Garnier of
D'Evelyn (Denver) will have his hands full fending off
Broomfield junior
Martin Wallace. Wallace also owns the top seed time in the 500 freestyle (4:38.26) while Garnier takes the top seed time into the 100 freestyle (45.73).
The preliminaries for both classifications begin at 4 p.m. Friday. The diving preliminaries take place at 9 a.m. Saturday at each site, with swimming and diving finals scheduled for 2 p.m. in both 5A and 4A.
Class 5A CHSAA Psych Sheets.
Class 4A CHSAA Psych Sheets.
