5A Swimming & Diving: Cherry Creek Sweeps Relays, Wins First State Title Since 2021

THORNTON – Chris Loftis is a swim coach, so he knows the feeling of getting wet.

But it had been three years since he jumped into the pool for the celebration of winning a state championship.

The Cherry Creek coach got that familiar, happy-soaked feeling back with his team Saturday evening at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center (VMAC), as he jumped in after the Bruins’ emphatic victory at the Class 5A state meet.

“It seems like it had been a long time,” Loftis said with a smile after the program picked up its 13th all-time state championship. “This is special group that has worked especially hard and everything came together at the right time.”

Loftis noted that Cherry Creek took a different approach to the Centennial “A” League Championship meet a week earlier — which the Bruins did not win for the first time in 25 years — and the strategy of lightning the load on its top swimmers seemed to pay off.

Cherry Creek swam very well in Friday morning’s prelims and set itself up for a big finals that included state championships in the 200 yard medley, 200 yard freestyle and 400 yard freestyle relays, in addition to individual titles for seniors Brodie Johnson (100 yard butterfly) and Colin Mikulecky (100 yard freestyle).

And that came after its first win in the morning, when junior Luke Ogren repeated as 5A state champion in 1-meter diving.

Cherry Creek — which ended rival Regis Jesuit’s bid for a three-peat — won the medley relay to start the finals with a team of Johnson and juniors Camille Trinquesse, Trevor Boodt and Connor Kelly. It led the way in a race in which the top-six teams all achieved All-American Consideration or better.

It was only up from there for Cherry Creek.

“The first race of the meet establishes the tone and the momentum,” Mikulecky said. “Shout out to those guys. It really set a great path for all of us to take.”

Pine Creek’s James Schreiber denied Mikulecky a 200 yard freestyle title and made a big move up after he was eighth in the event in 2023.

Fossil Ridge’s Brennen O’Neil achieved Automatic All-American status on his way to the 200 yard individual medley crown, while Lewis-Palmer’s Eli Hobson topped a super-fast 50 yard freestyle final with a time of 20.03 seconds.

It was the first of two titles for Hobson, who would set the Colorado state record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 53.58 seconds.

Grandview’s Oliver Schimberg repeated as state champion in the 100 backstroke and Highlands Ranch’s Vladislav Kazakin (500 yard freestyle) also won individually.

Regis Jesuit — which was in search of its 25th all-time state championship — came into the meet seeded to finish fifth, yet improved enough to collect a runner-up trophy, while the Highlands Ranch co-op team grabbed third.

Cherry Creek couldn’t have been happier at the end.

“We won my freshman year and we won my senior year, so that’s very exciting,” Johnson said. “We had a great team and we did the work. Great way to go out in my senior year.”