GREENWOOD VILLAGE | It took four years, but the seniors on the Regis Jesuit boys swim team now know the feeling of losing a dual meet.
The defending Class 5A state champion Raiders came up on the short end of a 171-144 decision to Cherry Creek, which posted its second win of the season in two meetings of the teams and further upped the ante for the season-ending 5A state meet May 15-16 at the Air Force Academy.
The Bruins also topped coach Nick Frasersmith’s Regis Jesuit team at the annual Dick Rush Coaches Invitational and took the dual meet rematch by winning five events and using depth to outlast the Raiders.
“This is the first dual meet loss in whole high school career, so it’s upsetting; it really hurts a lot, but you have to give credit to Creek, they executed and rightfully beat us,” said senior captain Quinlan Stuart, who posted two of the Raiders’ seven event victories.
“We know what we needed to do now for state,” he added. “Hats off to Creek, they swam great. We swam well, too, but they swam great.”
Regis Jesuit picked a lot of points at the top end, as Stuart finished first in both the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard breaststroke (the event in which he is the defending 5A state champion), freshman Ty Coen claimed both the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, senior Will Pieseski touched the wall first in the 50 freestyle and senior Kyle Goodwin took top honors on the diving board for Regis Jesuit.
The Raiders opened the meet with a victory in the 200 yard medley relay with the team of Stuart, fellow senior Chris Morales and freshmen Coen and Elijah Warren, but the Bruins grabbed the top four places in the following 200 yard freestyle to take a lead they would not surrender.
A 12-point meet after diving, Regis Jesuit just couldn’t pull back enough points in the final seven events to get past Cherry Creek.
“This and Coaches Invite are a couple of blows we’d rather not take, but it’s going to be a good state meet, I think,” Pieseski said. “This was eye-opening. It shows us this is going to be our big competition.”
While Regis Jesuit’s seniors rose to the occasion, so too, did a whole slew of talented freshmen.
Coen and Warren swam on the winning 200 medley relay to open the meet and finished 1-2 in the 100 butterfly, with Coen posting a time of 53.30 seconds for the victory. He later won the 100 backstroke in 54.08 seconds, while Warren finished as the runner-up to Stuart in the 200 IM.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
CHERRY CREEK 171, REGIS JESUIT 144
200 yard medley relay — 1. REGIS JESUIT A (Ty Coen, Quinlan Stuart, Elijah Warren, Chris Morales), 1 minute, 37.31 seconds; 2. Cherry Creek A, 1:39.37; 3. Cherry Creek B, 1:40.52; 4. REGIS JESUIT B (Nick Norie, Nick Birney, Chase Becker, Alexander Strepman), 1:41.37; 5. REGIS JESUIT C (Cristian Adams, Ted Koerner, Jack Guenther, Ben Fortuin), 1:45.81; 6. Cherry Creek C, 1:46.28; 7. Cherry Creek D, 1:49.96
200 yard freestyle — 1. Sam Coffman (Cherry Creek), 1 minute, 46.79 seconds; 2. Joe Jang (Cherry Creek), 1:49.20; 3. John Cremer (Cherry Creek), 1:50.46; 4. Bobby Calkins (Cherry Creek), 1:50.84; 5. GARRETT SUTER (REGIS JESUIT), 1:51.70; T6. TJ MILLER (REGIS JESUIT), 1:51.73; T6. COLETON ALLEN (REGIS JESUIT), 1:51.73; 8. CHRIS MCANINCH (REGIS JESUIT), 1:52.96
200 yard individual medley — 1. QUINLAN STUART (REGIS JESUIT), 1 minute, 58.25 seconds; 2. ELIJAH WARREN (REGIS JESUIT), 2:02.33; 3. Elliott Schwinn (Cherry Creek), 2:04.04; 4. Corey Stephens (Cherry Creek), 2:05.14; 5. Jake Watkins (Cherry Creek), 2:06.25; 6. NICK BIRNEY (REGIS JESUIT), 2:06.31; 7. Brandon Li (Cherry Creek), 2:07.33; CAMERON WEESE (REGIS JESUIT) DQ
50 yard freestyle — 1. WILL PIESESKI (REGIS JESUIT), 21.76 seconds; 2. Hunter Fuqua (Cherry Creek), 22.34; 3. CHRIS MORALES (REGIS JESUIT), 22.62; 4. JJ Strain (Cherry Creek), 22.63; 5. Daniel Merkulovich (Cherry Creek), 22.71; 6. Sean Smooke (Cherry Creek), 23.04; 7. ALEXANDER STREPMAN (REGIS JESUIT), 23.28; 8. ELLIOT STEINBERG (REGIS JESUIT), 24.18
1-meter diving — 1. KYLE GOODWIN (REGIS JESUIT), 357.40 points; 2. Max Spiegel (Cherry Creek), 203.00; 3. Gabe Reuter (Cherry Creek), 192.10; 4. NICK MORDINI (REGIS JESUIT), 186.95; 5. Grant Van Vleet (Cherry Creek), 130.25; 6. SAMUEL FOX (REGIS JESUIT), 129.90; 7. Justin Gill (Cherry Creek), 123.90
100 yard butterfly — 1. TY COEN (REGIS JESUIT), 53.30 seconds; 2. ELIJAH WARREN (REGIS JESUIT), 54.66; 3. Daniel Merkulovich (Cherry Creek), 55.04; 4. Brandon Li (Cherry Creek), 55.39; 5. CHRIS MORALES (REGIS JESUIT), 55.55; 6. Trevor Von Riesemann (Cherry Creek), 55.79; 7. Sean Smooke (Cherry Creek), 56.81; 8. CHASE BECKER (REGIS JESUIT), 57.80
100 yard freestyle — 1. Sam Coffman (Cherry Creek), 46.62 seconds; 2. WILL PIESESKI (REGIS JESUIT), 47.53; 3. Hunter Fuqua (Cherry Creek), 47.98; 4. JJ Strain (Cherry Creek), 49.18; 5. COLETON ALLEN (REGIS JESUIT), 50.27; 6. John Cremer (Cherry Creek), 50.32; 7. NICK NORIE (REGIS JESUIT), 50.57; 8. ALEXANDER STREPMAN (REGIS JESUIT), 51.24
500 yard freestyle — 1. Elliott Schwinn (Cherry Creek), 4 minutes, 56.11 seconds; 2. Joe Jang (Cherry Creek), 4:57.88; 3. CHRIS MCANINCH (REGIS JESUIT), 4:59.96; 4. TJ MILLER (REGIS JESUIT), 5:07.84; 5. ALEX BALDWIN (REGIS JESUIT), 5:08.50; 6. ELLIOT STEINBERG (REGIS JESUIT), 5:09.28; 7. Hunter Holsomback (Cherry Creek), 5:10.28; 8. Lars Hultgren (Cherry Creek), 5:19.18
200 yard freestyle relay — 1. Cherry Creek A, 1 minute, 28.35 seconds; 2. REGIS JESUIT A (Chris Morales, Alexander Strepman, Coleton Allen, Will Pieseski), 1:29.48; 3. Cherry Creek B, 1:31.19; 4. REGIS JESUIT B (Ted Koerner, Chase Becker, TJ Miller, Elliot Steinberg), 1:33.95; 5. Cherry Creek C, 1:35.79; 6. Cherry Creek D, 1:36.28; 7. REGIS JESUIT C (Boroks Hauge, Harrison Proctor, Andy Hoffman, Alex Baldwin), 1:36.55
100 yard backstroke — 1. TY COEN (REGIS JESUIT), 54.08 seconds; 2. Adam Cole (Cherry Creek), 54.80; 3. Alex Sironen (Cherry Creek), 54.91; 4. Daniel Esayev (Cherry Creek), 55.83; 5. GARRETT SUTER (REGIS JESUIT), 56.30; 6. NICK NORIE (REGIS JESUIT), 57.89; 7. Sam Roach (Cherry Creek), 57.98; 8. TRISTAN THOMAS (REGIS JESUIT), 58.39
100 yard breaststroke — 1. QUINLAN STUART (REGIS JESUIT), 58.51 seconds; 2. Corey Stephens (Cherry Creek), 1:00.89; 3. Jake Watkins (Cherry Creek), 1:01.78; 4. TED KOERNER (REGIS JESUIT), 1:02.69; 5. ETHAN STANLEY (REGIS JESUIT), 1:03.13; 6. NICK BIRNEY (REGIS JESUIT), 1:04.47; 7. Bobby Calkins (Cherry Creek), 1:05.00; 8. Nick Brill (Cherry Creek), 1:09.11
400 yard freestyle relay — 1. Cherry Creek A, 3 minutes. 13.13 seconds; 2. REGIS JESUIT A (Elijah Warren, Coleton Allen, Quinlan Stuart, Will Pieseski), 3:15.63; 3. REGIS JESUIT B (Nick Norie, Ty Coen, Garrett Suter, TJ Miller), 3:25.30; 4. Cherry Creek B, 3:25.30; 5. Cherry Creek C, 3:30.40; 6. REGIS JESUIT C (Chase Becker, Alex Baldwin, Chris McAninch, Elliot Steinberg), 3:34.08; 7. Cherry Creek D, 3:37.77
