Will Goodwin got a lot of surprises at the annual Dick Rush Coaches Invitational March 23.
The Regis Jesuit senior star’s first surprise came with the ease in which he won the 200 yard individual medley, as he finished more than six seconds ahead of the field just a few days after returning from a grueling sectional meet.
Goodwin later won the Hoyt Brawner Award as Colorado’s top senior swimmer/scholar/citizen and took home the 100 yard breaststroke as well as the Raiders won the annual multi-classification meet by more than 50 points.
Goodwin is one of the most significant figures for coach Nick Frasersmith’s Regis Jesuit team, which climbed back to the top of the mountain last season by edging Fossil Ridge by just 3.5 points in a state meet that went all the way down the final event.
The Raiders — winners of 22 all-time state championships — have known what to do in the past when it comes to defending titles, but they’ll have to do it with a considerably different (and younger) cast.
Elijah Warren, a four-time state champion last season, is at Arizona State, Ty Coen has moved on to Arizona and others that contributed heavily to last season’s win are no longer around.
Regis Jesuit appears to have the swimmers to pick up the slack if the Dick Rush results are any indication. Even with a few other sectional swimmers absent, the Raiders took 38 qualifiers and had at least one championship finalist in all but one event.
Sophomores Sawyer Inglis (500 freestyle) and Quinn Henninger (1-meter diving) won events and freshman Gio Aguirre made a splash with a pair of fourth-place finishes as the Raiders reload with youth for another title run.
Among other Aurora programs, Cherokee Trail flexed some significant muscle with its seventh-place finish, which saw the Cougars nearly double their point total from the previous season.
Coach Kipp Meek’s team got shut out at last season’s 5A state meet, but looks primed to do some damage this season, especially with four more scoring positions available.
The Cougars return four individual state qualifiers in senior Matthew McNulla, juniors Jason McMechan and Logan Devereaux and sophomore Kadin Denner — and they all teamed up to place seventh for the Cougars in the 200 yard medley relay to set a tone.
McMechan nearly won an individual title, but he settled for second in the 100 yard backstroke, while he also placed fifth in the 200 yard individual medley. Denner finished third in the 500 freestyle with a time already three seconds better than he swam at state last season.
Smoky Hill earned its way into the top 10 with a ninth-place total of 145 points, with returning state qualifier and senior Alex Burkhardt placing in the top 10 in two events.
Buffaloes coach Scott Cohen is excited about the possibilities for some new young swimmers, including freshman Isaac Yi, who earned the only championship finals spot other than Burkhardt with a seventh-place finish in the 100 breaststroke.
Grandview had 12 individual qualifiers for the Coaches Invitational and three are returning state placers from last season in senior Cobi Wood and senior divers Antonio Vigil-Harrison and Noah Bishop. A few other Wolves appeared at state on relays.
In the early season, Wood has put aside the 500 freestyle that he is used to swimming in favor of the 100 freestyle, which he is using to compliment the 200 freestyle. Wood posted the top prelims time in the 200, only to get edged by Mullen’s Ben Freeman by an eyelash (0.04 seconds), while he beat Freeman to take fourth in the 100.
Vigil-Harrison grabbed the No. 10 spot in the state diving competition a year ago, but finished fourth with Bishop in 13th. Grandview scored in all three relays, topped by the 200 freestyle in sixth.
The Hinkley-based Aurora Public Schools combo team graduated nearly all of its point scorers from last season, when coach Beth Himes’ group finish an all-time best eighth.
Senior Will Hawley — the lone returning member of two top-nine relay team — didn’t swim and without him, the Thunderbirds collected six points. All came from the relay team of Andrew Coleman, Johnathan Lopez, Cole Hoppell and Jake Johnson).
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Sentinel Prep Sports