The boys swim team has had a competition-filled start to the week. They spent their weekend competing in the Cheyenne Mountain Invitational, where they faced off against 17 other teams – securing the sixth place spot. It was a highly competitive meet, and quite a feat to even make it to the finals. “Cheyenne Mountain truly gave us a look at some of the swimming giants projected to do really well this year” said Jackson Sawyer,11, citing Discovery Canyon and Legacy (who got first and second at the meet) as examples. “We truly saw what we are up against at state,” he added.

Notable individual finishes included Alex Spieker,12, who got sixth in the finals of the 200 freestyle, competing against the likes of Cheyenne Mountain’s Kyle Leach who set a new meet record of 1:41.59 in the event. The team also scored points in the 50 free thanks to a third place finish from Andrew Aire. Coronado’s most notable finish in any individual event, however, came in the 100 breaststroke when Andrew Aire and Jackson Sawyer secured third and fourth place finishes, respectively.

There were also exciting results during the diving portion of the competition. Arctic Althouse, a senior from Lewis-Palmer, broke both the pool and meet diving record with an incredible score of 61.2. There was also exciting news from the cougars, however, as senior Matthew Lenz qualified for state. Lenz has been diving for his entire four years, as a concussion his freshman year eliminated the possibility of doing contact sports. “I liked jumping off the diving board for fun” said Lenz of how he chose diving. He has already made one appearance at state, saying of his experience, “there were so many amazing divers,” and “I learned a lot from watching them.” This year, as he prepares to go to state for the second time, he hopes “that all the hard work will pay off.”

Last Tuesday, the team faced off against Pine Creek for the second time in a week: this time one on one. The Cougars put up a good fight, but came away with loss, 144 – 168. Hopefully, the team will be able to come back from last week’s dual meet loss and come away with a win against Rampart today, Tuesday 4/24.