Loveland – Anyone looking for the little things that usually make high school state championships a memorable event couldn’t have missed Ian Cohee, a Thompson Valley High School senior, Saturday afternoon at the Class 4A boys state swimming championships.
Cohee didn’t swim a lap, but he added his touch to the championships by leading Thompson Valley into the finals with a perfect performance on the bagpipes. Wearing a kilt and all, Cohee piped the Eagles team into the Mountain View High School Aquatics Center, then left before the competition began. But his classmates stayed, winning the title, the fourth for coach Tom Hewson.
But while the Eagles could celebrate their entrance and exit, Cheyenne Mountain’s Kris Findorff celebrated with a weekend of two 4A state records and a designation of the classification’s swimmer of the year.
The 6-foot-9 Findorff set a record in the 50-yard freestyle in Friday’s preliminaries and the 100-yard freestyle as well, and he came back to break the 100-yard mark again Saturday. His record times were 21.06 seconds in the 50-yard prelim and 45.95 in the 100 freestyle final.
“My height helps me, but in the end it comes down to who is fastest,” Findorff said. “I got myself a little too hyped up in the 50 today. I still won, so I feel good. I’m happy. I improved my time in the 100 today.”
Findorff plans to continue the ride in swimming that started when he was a sophomore at Cheyenne Mountain.
“I’m going to Auburn,” he said. “Three straight national championships. I’m going to have some fun and try it with the big boys next year.”
Pueblo Centennial’s John Banker and Thompson Valley’s Sam Shook each won two races, Banker setting a 4A state mark in the 100-yard butterfly at 50.52.
Shook led the winning Eagles with victories in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley. Shook, a senior, talked of the lift from Cohee’s entrance.
“That’s my favorite thing,” Shook said. “Nobody else does it. It’s unique. I don’t know the name of the song, but I sing it all the time. It gets us excited. It tells us we’re coming to fight. This has been a goal and we finally got it done.”
Hewson explained that Cohee came out for swimming as a freshman, but didn’t make the state team. But he promised his teammates that he would pipe them into every championship meet.
“We rallied around the movie ‘Braveheart,”‘ Hewson said. “We make that procession when we come to the championships. …
“Our guys were connected to each other throughout the meet.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
