Fort Collins – Heritage’s Mark Dylla and Poudre’s Tyler Svendsen come from dramatically different swimming backgrounds. Dylla is a household name on the Colorado swimming scene, and Svendsen is just starting to open eyes.
Dylla, just a junior and already a four-time state champion, broke a 6-year-old state record in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 49.25 seconds Thursday in the preliminaries of the Class 5A state swimming and diving meet. The old record of 49.36 was set by Regis’ Luke Wagner in 2000.
“That one has kind of eluded me for a while,” said Dylla, whose lead 50 backstroke in the 200 medley relay was a blazing 23.63 seconds. “I finally burst through that and got that state record. That’s a big relief going into (tonight’s) final.”
Then Dylla busted a 7-year-old Class 5A state record in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:30.91. He was just 0.24 of a second off the all-class Colorado record set by Littleton’s Jack Taylor in 1991.
“I wanted to go for it in the prelims and just hold nothing back,” Dylla said. “That way I can just race (tonight) and see what happens.”
Svendsen, a senior bound for the University of Arizona, was the class of the 200 freestyle, posting a stellar 1:41.86, best of the day by more than two seconds.
“It’s always nice to have fast times and improve upon them,” said the 6-foot-5 Svendsen, who has been swimming year-round just two seasons.
Said Poudre coach Brent Moore: “This has been about three years coming. He can do anything he puts his mind to.”
Svendsen also will be the top seed in the 100 free after posting a 46.50 time, just .17 ahead of Arapahoe’s Eric Anderssen, the top qualifier in the 50 free.
Other individual top seeds included Regis’ Jay Kim in the 200 individual medley, George Washington’s Max Laney in the 100 backstroke and Smoky Hill’s Kyle Johnson in the 100 breaststroke.
What is shaping up to be a fantastic team race featured Regis, winner of 11 straight team titles, qualifying first in each of the three relays, plus some noteworthy individual efforts in qualifying. Arapahoe is hopeful of ending the Raiders’ streak.
“I really couldn’t ask for much more,” Regis coach Michael Doherty said of his swimmers’ first-day efforts.
Jon E. Yunt can be reached at 303-820-5446 or jyunt@denverpost.com.
