Pomona on cloud nine after banner athletic year in Colorado

Of the more than 60 Colorado high schools that compete at the Class 5A level, a small handful has an enrollment of less than 1,500 students.

Pomona High School in Arvada is one of these – with an enrollment of 1,448, the Arvada-area school isn't much above the line that separates 5A (1,411 on up) from 4A. But the Panthers proved during the 2014-15 school year that numbers aren't everything.

From August through May, Pomona (Arvada) set out to show why it isn't always about the size of the dog in the fight. Eight athletes spread across six sports captured a total of nine individual state championships during the school year, which is an impressive feat for a school of any size.

"A state championship, it is a crapshoot. There are a lot of bizarre things that can happen, so being a state champion is impressive," Pomona Athletic Director Mike Santarelli said. "The stars have aligned and you were successful – it's kind of amazing how many stars aligned for us this year."

Pomona captured individual titles in boys golf, gymnastics and cross country in the fall, followed by four state crowns in wrestling over the winter. The Panthers capped things off with two more titles in the spring: one in boys swimming and the other at the state track meet.

Senior Marcelo Laguera took home two of those championships, running to the top spot in the 5A state cross country meet Oct. 25, and then again May 14 in the 3,200-meter run at state track.

"I love representing Pomona, and the fact that we had so many state champions this year from different sports, it was just an honor," Laguera said. "We're a small 5A school, probably one of the smallest. So the fact that we're small and able to compete with everybody else is pretty amazing."

Here is a look back at Pomona's championship stories:

Boys Golf: Grant Olinger, Sr.
Olinger may have been among the most intriguing stories of the year, simply because he was an unknown commodity headed into the final day of the state meet. After shooting an opening round of 76, the senior trailed by seven strokes coming into the final day of competition. A 4-under-par 67 allowed him to come away with a one-stroke victory.

Olinger, who is headed to Colorado Mesa University in the fall, was the school's first state champion in the sport since Zahkai Brown in 2007.

"I knew I had to do something stellar to get top 10 or even place. As I was going through the round, I felt pretty good and I knew I was hitting the ball well," Olinger recalled. "I figured out what was going wrong the first day, so that helped me succeed the second day."

Gymnastics: Kelsey Boychuk, Fr.

In what was a grand showing for Jeffco schools on the first day of the meet – Standley Lake won the 4A team title as well – Boychuk burst onto the scene and made the most of her opportunity.

The freshman's all-around score of 38.325 edged Cherry Creek's Samantha Simon's mark of 38.125 to give her the championship.

"I was super excited actually," she said. "It wasn't really something I was expecting, but I knew I had worked hard to get there."

Boychuk's next goal? Repeating the feat next fall.

"I guess I'm putting the pressure on to tell myself to do it again," she said.

Cross Country: Marcelo Laguera, Sr.
A year earlier, Laguera had struggled at the state championships, finishing 71st. That was a far cry from his 10th-place finish as a sophomore, or even when he took 53rd as a freshman.

Laguera put the past behind him though, rolling to a winning time of 16 minutes, 19.4 seconds – more than 23 seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher.

"At the end of my junior year, I told my coach I want to be a state champion, and he said ‘OK, let's make it happen,'" Laguera said. "I did a lot of training over the summer and I just did everything he told me. When it actually happened, it's a feeling I can't describe. It was basically the happiest day of my life."

Wrestling: Dayton Marvel, Fr.; Tomas Gutierrez, Jr.; Travis Torres, Sr.; Dayaun Trueblood, Jr.
Of all the athletic teams to find success this year at Pomona, wrestling was the one from which the most was expected. The team had two state champions in 2014 and finished second as a team at state to Arvada West. The Panthers were second again this year, but substantially closed the gap with four state champions to finish just 10 points back.

Marvel got the ball rolling for Pomona in the championship finals with a 3-2 decision at 106 pounds, giving the freshman his first crown. Gutierrez defended his 2014 title with a 6-4 decision at 113, and Torres followed with a 10-2 major decision at 120. Trueblood closed the scoring for Pomona with a 5-3 decision at 170 pounds.

Track and field: Laguera
No longer the underdog, Laguera did what was expected and brought home the title in the 3,200 with a time of 9:24.88.

"It was the best way to end my high school career," he said. "I knew I could do it again. I worked really hard. Track was a little bit different because coming into the state meet I was seeded first in the mile and 2-mile. Me being first, that put a little pressure on me, but I knew I could handle it pretty well."

Laguera will compete at CSU-Pueblo in the fall.

Boys Swimming: Keegan Foulke, Jr.
Just like Nolan Tesone in 2012, a Pomona swimmer took the top spot in the 200 individual medley, Foulke swam his way to his first championship and the final one of the season for the Panthers on May 16, taking first in the 200 IM with a time of 1:50.13 – good for an Automatic All-American time.

Foulke beat out Fairview's Michael Zarian, who was seeded first after the preliminaries. Zarian is a teammate of Foulke's in club swimming.

"I wasn't really sure how it was going to go," said Foulke, who was fourth in the event as a sophomore. "I wasn't really rested, but I felt like I could win.

"It's nerve-wracking to go up against someone you race every single day. You know exactly what they're going to do and how they're going to swim their race. After I touched the wall I was just sort of relieved it was over."

Foulke may have put it best when asked about what it meant to win for Pomona.

"There's an immense amount of pride. To come away with nine state champions is just incredible," he said. "At school we always talk about what it's like to be a Panther. I feel like that really helps define what it was; a lot of athletes strive for excellence … this year I feel like everybody sort of dug deep and pulled it out."