Every member of Durango High School’s 2014 state swim team has been there before.
Paul Cross, Ben Miller, Josh Miller and Tommy Pannell will compete at the 2014 Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A State Championships on Friday and Saturday at the Edora Pool Ice Center in Fort Collins.
Rubin Barnes and Robert Smith also will attend as Durango’s alternates.
“All of my guys that are competing at state are second year or more,” DHS head coach Tom Joyner said. “This year, I’ve been blessed to have both Paul and Josh as my seniors as my captains. They have a strong, quiet leadership; walk softly, carry a big stick.”
Josh Miller will compete in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley as an individual and will swim in the 200-yard freestyle relay and 200-yard medley relay.
It’s his third consecutive season qualifying for the state meet in four years of competition.
“There’s more teams there than there are at any other meet that we go to,” said Josh Miller, son of Deborah and Richard Miller. “It’s an exciting atmosphere.”
There were 24 teams that attended last season’s state meet.
Cross swam in the 200-yard freestyle relay last season and will be a member of that team again this season in addition to the 200-yard medley relay. He nearly qualified as an individual but missed the qualifying time for the 100-yard breaststroke by one second and was just over a second away from several other times.
“We’ve been training for it all season. All the teams are there; you get to see the fastest of the fastest,” said Cross, son of Steven and Wendy Cross. “Just being able to swim there and swim with those guys is great, knowing that you’re fast enough to race with them.”
Ben Miller will compete in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard freestyle, and Pannell is entered in the 200-yard freestyle.
They’ll both participate in both relays, as well.
DHS also qualified for the 400-yard freestyle relay as a team, but individual players only are allowed to swim in two relays, so the Demons’ small team size prevents that.
The team wrapped up its district meet as a full squad Saturday, then immediately began tapering its workouts for the state meet.
“For a big competition, you don’t want to walk into that off of 5,000 yards (that week),” Joyner said. “We decrease the quantity but not the quality incrementally as we move toward the meet. It builds up this reserve of energy.”
DHS finished 23rd out of 24 teams last season, and while Joyner would like to improve on that finish, he views success at the state meet through a different lens than numbers.
“My goals for them are to have successful swims. That may not equate to a faster time; that may not equate to a top-five placing,” he said. “It may equate to them having a really good swim and walking away from the experience fulfilled.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
