Windsor’s steady performance leads to 4A boys swimming championship
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY – There was no flash or flamboyance to Windsor High School’s swim team and no event wins – but there was plenty of consistent performances.
Those performances when totaled together gave the Wizards the team title at the Class 4A swim & dive state championships Saturday at the United States Air Force Academy. The was the Wizards first state team swimming championship.
Windsor finished with 202 points to edge Discovery Canyon which came in with 194 points.
“We have solid core group of guys,” said Windsor coach Trevor Timmons, who just completed his fifth season guiding the program. “This just feels amazing. It’s really exciting to be the state champs. We are going to have a fun drive home.”
Windsor was trailing Discovery Canyon by 20 points headed into the last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Thunder didn’t have a team competing in the relay and Windsor placed fifth with the team of Riley Miller, Josh Dodrill, Ethan Hansbury and Colby Horton to clinch the coveted state crown.
“Last place in the 400 freestyle relay was 22 points so I told them not to DQ,” Timmons said. “All they needed was safe starts. We had some slow starts on that one, but that’s what we needed. This is just amazing. In the back half of the meet, we just have so much depth and that really played out for us.”
Mullen (187) and Cheyenne Mountain (168) finished third and fourth in the team race.
Cheyenne Mountain won the 200-yard medley relay (1:34.20) with a team of Christian Moden, Juwon Hong, Kyle Leach, and Gabe Grauvogel.
Leach, who was named Class 4A swimmer of the year, led the way for the Indians he snared the 100-yard freestyle in a state record time of 44.33 seconds, which also was an automatic All-American time.
“This is all I could ever ask for,” said Leach, a senior. “I can’t complain about winning and setting a state record. I don’t remember the race. It was just a flash. I saw Griffin (Ayotte of Air Academy) and he kept pushing me to go further.”
Leach, who is headed to swim at the University of Missouri next fall, also won the 50 freestyle in an automatic All-American consideration time of 20.32.
Pine Creek’s Nicholas Sherman also was a double state champ. He was victorious in the 200 IM in 1:50.81 in an automatic All-American time and then he was tops in the 100 backstroke in 50.01 seconds.
Other winners were Wheat Ridge’s Ryan Peterson in the 200 freestyle (1:39.58). The junior’s clocking was an automatic All-American time.
Discovery Canyon’s Brendan Byrnes was the diving champ with 508.75 points. Freshman John Plutt, who competes for Pueblo County High School’s co-op team, won the 100 butterfly (50.26) and junior Ryan King of Montrose won his first state crown the 500 freestyle (4:36.47). King was a state runner-up in the event a year ago.
Plutt also swam the opening leg on the Hornets’ state championship 200 freestyle relay that clocked a 1:27.18 time.
“It’s one thing to win it by yourself, but to bring a whole relay with you and have everybody win takes a lot of work,” Plutt said. “This is a great feeling.”
Kaleb DeLeon-Fisher, Jacob Dorn, and Treven Wertz were also part of the 200 free championship team.
D’Evelyn’s Jack Moranetz was the 100 breaststroke winner in 56.39 seconds at Mullen won the 400 freestyle relay.
