FORT COLLINS — The Vidal brothers, Ramon and Luis, made history here Friday at the boys Class 5A state swimming championships, but even if they didn’t realize it at first.
The brothers were the first boys ever from Montbello High to qualify for the state swim meet.
It’s a remarkable feat, considering that a year ago the east Denver school didn’t field a boys team. At Montbello, the athletic accolades in the spring are usually reserved for track and field athletes.
That will change today, when Ramon, a senior, competes in the finals of the 100 breaststroke. He qualified seventh, in 59.89 seconds, in Friday’s preliminaries at Edora Pool Ice Center. Luis, who is 11 months older than Ramon and also a senior, finished 17th in the same event.
Ramon said he’s hoping to surprise folks from traditional swimming powerhouses such as Regis and Cherry Creek.
“Montbello has never been here before,” Ramon said. “If they see Montbello up there, they’ll be like, ‘What?’ ”
Though swimming might be new to Montbello, it’s not new to the Vidal brothers, who started the sport as small children in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Both brothers, and especially Ramon, were highly competitive in age group swimming and in water polo. Their family moved to Denver in January 2008, following older brother Rafael and sister Lorene, who both attend Colorado State.
“The thing of staying together is the biggest part for us,” Rafael said. “We will do anything to stay together and keep swimming.”
But moving to Green Valley Ranch proved difficult for the boys’ swimming careers. Montbello, the school closest to their new home, had a pool on campus but no team. And though they received scholarships to train with the Hilltoppers club team at the University of Denver, the lengthy commute made it difficult to practice there consistently.
Unable to compete for the Warriors, the brothers spent their junior season swimming at George Washington under coach Shaun Smith, who trained them at DU. Ramon and Luis qualified for the state meet with George Washington last season. Ramon finished ninth, though his time of 59.80 would have placed him third in the championship final. Luis was 18th.
Montbello restarted its boys swimming program this year with a total of 10 swimmers — all basically beginning swimmers, except for the Vidal brothers.
“We’re working on it,” Montbello coach Stacy Simpson said. “It is really exciting for Montbello to have two guys here.”
Now the brothers train after school at Montbello, completing workouts e-mailed to them from their coach in Puerto Rico. Then they stay around to work with their high school teammates.
Ramon said classmates at Montbello have started to realize the school has a swim team, and he smiled at the thought that his name and swimming accomplishment might be read over the intercom at school Monday morning.
“I feel proud,” Ramon said. “In my school, people know that we swim well.”
Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com
