AURORA — It doesn’t happen often, but the Regis Jesuit boys swim team can be beaten.
It’s happened for the second time in a week.
For the first time in program history, Highlands Ranch’s co-op team, consisting of swimmers from ThunderRidge, Rock Canyon, Mountain Vista and Highlands Ranch, scored a victory over the Raiders, 177-138, on Tuesday at Regis Jesuit High School. Led by Kyle Noser and Kyle Milberg, Highlands Ranch won nine of 12 varsity events.
Entering the meet, Highlands Ranch figured it had a chance, especially after Regis lost last week to Cherry Creek — the first time the Raiders had lost to an instate opponent since 1990, a stretch of 250 consecutive victories.
“We’re really confident. We’re still coming into this that Regis is a championship team and we’re not up to that yet, but hopefully at state we get that,” said senior Cole Hackney, who won the 50-yard freestyle and took second to teammate Ian Woon in the 100 freestyle. “They’re still one of the top teams in the state. We came in here thinking that we could try our best to stay up with them.”
Three top-four finishes in the 200 IM and 50 freestyle, won by Noser and Hackney, respectively, catapulted Highlands Ranch. And though the win was nice and his team was confident, there’s still a lot more work to do, said coach Will Iaia.
“It’s a good win. We’ll take it and celebrate. But (today) we’re back in the pool. We have to keep our heads focused on state. That’s our goal,” Iaia said.
The same goes for Regis, which has won 15 consecutive state titles dating back to 1995. Coach Michael Doherty knows that his young team didn’t perform well against Cherry Creek, but Tuesday’s effort was better. Part of that effort was senior Nick Beaulieu, who won the 500 free, and freshman Clark Smith, who won the 200 free and tied for first with Milberg in the 100 fly.
