Durango High School sent a small team to the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A Boys Swim & Dive Championships to contest four events at the U.S. Air Force Academy Natatorium.
The two-day meet began with several preliminaries Friday.
Emmett Stottlemyer, a senior, was the team’s lone individual to qualify for events, and the Demons also qualified two relay teams.
Stottlemyer was strong in the 200-yard freestyle prelims, as he worked his way into the A finals with a time of 1 minute, 48.46 seconds. That was more than a full second faster than his seed time and put him into the A final with the eighth-fastest prelim time. Ryan Peterson, a Wheat Ridge junior, finished in 1:40.65 to improve on his seed time by nearly seven seconds.
Stottlemyer also competed in the 500-yard freestyle prelims. He had the seventh-best seed time and posted the eighth-best prelim time to get into another A final. He swam in 4:55.32, which was more than a half second clear of the top B final swimmers. Montrose’s Ryan King had the top prelim time in the event in 4:42.20.
Durango’s 200-yard medley team did not make it out of preliminaries. The team of Aaron Clark, Jason Maynes, Nick Piccaro and Stottlemyer finished 25th in 1:55.25. The fastest prelim time came from Cheyenne Mountain, which finished in 1:35.59. The top 16 teams reached the finals with two teams eligible as alternates.
Durango’s 200-yard freestyle relay team also fell short of qualifying with a 23rd place finish in prelims. The relay squad finished in 1:40.65 and was more than a second off a B final qualifying time, though the team did improve more than a second from its seed time. Golden had the top prelim in the event with a finish in 1:28.58.
Stottlemyer will race in his individual final events Saturday.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
