Tommy Pannell wouldn’t exit his home pool without at least one win.
The Durango High School boys swim team closed its regular season Friday at Fort Lewis College, as the Montrose Indians won all but one race against the Demons for a 674-435 win.
Durango’s lone win came when Pannell, a senior, narrowly beat Montrose’s J.D. TenNapel in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.23 seconds. TenNapel finished in 24.30 seconds.
Pannell’s time wasn’t where he’d like it to have been. His personal record in the event is 23.82.
“I think I definitely didn’t do as well as I wanted to,” said Pannell, son of Jim and Kathy Pannell. “You sometimes have those meets where you don’t do as well.”
Pannell is one of four seniors who will make the trip to the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A state championship meet in May. Pannell will head to state in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard medley relay.
“It feels good (to go to state),” Pannell said. “I hope to make finals, which is the top 16. I’m going to try really hard for these two weeks before state. Then, the last week before state, I’ll probably ease it back and taper it a little but keep the intensity. I want to place at districts and get a couple more state times as well.”
Pannell has been swimming well as of late, as he put in a great meet at the 2016 Eagle Invitational at Colorado Springs.
“I watched Pannell swim a phenomenal 100 free,” said Durango head coach Thomas Joyner. “I was astounded how great it looked and how cool it looked. He went out and stomped on everybody. When you see a swim like that, it’s always neat.”
Between events Friday, Joyner took time to honor Ben Clark, David Etz, Ben Miller and Pannell to celebrate senior day.
All four seniors will head to state in multiple events, including the 200 medley relay as a team. Against Montrose, the foursome took second place with a time of 2 minutes, 1.56 seconds. Montrose’s team of Elias Carlson, Korban Christianson, Marty Hild, and Ryan King took first with a time of 1:54.78.
“Pretty much all the guys I’m taking to state are going to be primed and ready to go,” Joyner said. “Now that we have that two-week break, I’m going to have my guys who are going to state training at a different level and go into state and ready to explode.”
This year’s scheduling is different with districts and state two weeks apart. Usually there is only one week separating districts and state.
“My goal has always been to do well at state,” said Miller, son of Debbie and Richard Miller. “This year, I hope to make finals. ... I hope we get good times in the relays, too.”
Miller qualified for the 100 free, 200 free and 50 free in his individual events.
In high school, swimmers are allowed to compete in only two individual events and two team relay events.
Miller also took third Friday in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:03.46. Daniel Hurford of Montrose took first in 59.46 seconds, while Christianson took second in 1:02.16.
Prior to the meet, Durango took part of the pre-meet ritual of the Haka chant that is most notably known from New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team.
“It’s pretty fun, sometimes I just start laughing,” said Etz, son of Linda and Ron Etz. “Sometimes I forget the motions, so I’m delayed a little.”
With a smaller squad than Montrose, some Durango swimmers were asked to swim in events they weren’t used to. Etz took fourth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 7:18.59.
“I think I did pretty good,” he said. “It was the first time I swam the 500, so I got a personal record. It was pretty tough because the pacing was rough.”
Durango’s fourth senior, Clark, qualified for state in four events: the 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle, 200 intermediate and 100 backstroke. He also will have to pick only two events for state.
“I think I’ll do pretty good,” said Clark, son of Jeff and Kristey Clark. “I’m looking at the final heat.”
Despite losing its final meet, Durango looked forward to using Friday’s meet as a warm up to the postseason.
“I think we had some good swims; we didn’t have any bad swims,” Joyner said. “Swimming against Montrose, who has five more guys than we do, you’re not going to beat them.”
Senior Jason Clark also qualified for state in multiple events but will be unable to make the trip because of prior engagements.
“So that will cause me to bump up some guys,” Joyner said. “We’re sitting good.”
Durango will compete in the Western Slope Championships on May 6 in Grand Junction. The Demons then will head to state championships May 20 in Thornton.
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
