LOVELAND — What jet lag?
Even after spending most of his week in and out of airports, switching time zones and training at a rec center pool, Regis’ Jay Kim was still the best swimmer at the Dick Rush Invitational on Saturday at Mountain View Aquatic Center.
After Kim made an official visit to Division II University of Indianapolis earlier in the week, coach Michael Doherty didn’t know what to expect of his senior. Kim was flawless in swimming to a six-second victory in the 200-yard individual medley and then later in the 100 butterfly.
“Pretty nice day,” said Kim, the defending state champ in the 200 IM. “I was pleased with my IM. And my fly was good, even though I would have liked to gone under 49 (seconds).I’ll take it.”
With just an hour break between the morning preliminaries and the finals, Kim eased into the championship heat of the IM with the fourth best time. Not only was his finals time (1:52.47) nine seconds faster than his morning swim, it was six seconds better than second-place finisher Tim Biegler of Loveland (1:58.92).
“He was kind of just cruising this morning, and I don’t really think he knew where he was going, and honestly we didn’t know what to expect from him,” Doherty said. “He came out of his 200 IM this morning and said he was really tired.”
In addition to his two victories, Kim had a sub 21-second split as the anchor of the 200 free relay team and a 45-second split in the final leg of the 400 free relay.
Silver Creek’s Nick Koerner, the reigning Class 4A sprint champion, finished second to Heritage’s Conor Brennan in the 50, but came back in the 100 to outlast 5A defending champion Tyler Bush.
“Finding competition like that at regular meets is hard to do,” Koerner said.
Legacy freshman Steve Schmuhl looked every bit the part of a future star after winning the 200 free by three seconds over Bush, but leg cramps slowed him drastically in the 100.
Regis, behind two relay victories, won the team title rather handily with 338 points. Highlands Ranch edged Cherry Creek by 1 1/2 points to take home second. Mountain View was the top 4A team, 14 points ahead of Silver Creek.
Other winners included Mountain View’s Taylor Sishc (diving), Ralston Valley’s Clay Myers (500 free), Highlands Ranch’s Kyle Milberg (100 back) and Regis’ Blas Yslas (100 breaststroke).
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
