After holding the Class 5A Boys Swimming and Diving State Championship title for three years, Fossil Ridge High School lost in the final event to come in second to rival Regis Jesuit High School. It was a defeat that every senior on the team had never felt before and set a new goal for the team next year to bring back the legacy of Fossil being State champions once again.

The Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center was flooded with buses of high schoolers ready to hit the Olympic sized pool for the Boys Swimming and Diving State Championship preliminary. At 1:00 P.M. on Friday, May 18 the first yellow Poudre School District bus arrived containing the 2018 Fossil Ridge High School boys swim and dive team. After the Sabercats rolled up Rocky Mountain High School and Fort Collins High School. The three teams represented the Poudre district, but Fossil had already out-swam them all. Head swim coach Mark Morehouse said, “Our kids have trained hard this is the peak of our season and I think they’re ready to go.”

The first day was preliminary swim events, diving preliminaries and finals started the next day. The Sabercats placed third in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:34.40 to move on to championships. In the 200-yard freestyle Fossil had Lars Worlund (1:40.81) and Richard Dauksher (1:41.35) place to swim in the finals. For the 200 yard IM Danny Kovac (1:47.98) and Zach Bartel (1:55.69) placed first and sixth to compete in finals along with Cole Glover and Christian Conrady who did not place, but also would go on to swim in the championships the next day. In the 50 yard freestyle Matt Geraghty (21.19) placed third to be the only Fossil swimmer to compete in that event the next day. Kovac placed first in the 100-yard butterfly as well with a time of 48.00 seconds flat and Jonah “JJ” Holt also made it into the final. Geraghty grabbed first in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.32 seconds to swim the next day, Alexander “Sasha” Chappell also made the cut to compete the next day.

Dauksher and Worlund placed fourth and fifth with times of 4:38.46 and 4:38.74 in the 500-yard freestyle to move on the next day, also swimming in the finals would be Cole Mason. Taking third in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a team of Dauksher, Geraghty, Holt, and Xander Johnson the Sabercats would swim the next day with a time of 1:26.26. No Fossil swimmers qualified for the 100-yard backstroke, but Alex Henderson and Matyi Mayo both qualified for the 100-yard breaststroke. In the 400-yard freestyle relay Dauksher, Geraghty, Kovac, and Worlund swam together with a time of 3:03.99 to compete the next day. Bartel came in second in a swim off against Fairview High School swimmer Cody Yan in the 100-yard breast to see who would swim the next day. That concluded the first day of state championships on an impressive note and left everyone fired up for the next day of swimming and diving.

Despite the rain that had poured outside VMAC the boys’ diving preliminaries were heating up. Fossil had two divers to compete in the preliminaries, both freshman, Gannon Percy and Josh Ball. Diving coach Zach Finley said, “Our main goal was to dive clean and dive safe, and so far we did that.” This was said after Percy made it into semi-finals while Ball did not make a qualifying time. That said this was the first time in years for the Sabercats to have two divers compete at the State meet and one make it into the semi-finals, as well as break two school records this year with diving. Despite the almost empty pool, Finley said: “It’s hard but we have one swimmer here and the head swim coach here, so there’s support.” Percy had an outstanding day of diving with a final score of 443.10 but came in ninth which did not take him to the podium. Although diving did not place this was a phenomenal year for the Fossil diving program, keep an eye on the boards for the divers who will be sophomores next year.

Before swimming started their finals the 50-yard free swim happened with five swimmers none of whom went to Fossil. The boys all had disabilities but no one could tell when they hit the water and the stadium roared for them. It was a unity of not only every swim team, but every fan section as the five gentlemen swam their hearts out. Geoffrey Simpson from Horizon High School won first place with a time of 28.90, but every swimming wore a blue first place medal as they came out of the pool.

To start the day for swimming finals was a 200-yard medley relay team of Holt, Johnson, Kovac, and Mayo that placed fourth with a time of  1:34.14. Fossil had two swimmers, Dauksher and Worlund, place in the 200-yard freestyle. Dauksher took third with a time of 1:40.14 and Worlund took fourth with a time of 1:40.78. Kovac not only took first place but broke a previous state record in the 200 yard IM with a time of 1:46.27 that beat the previous record by 0.47 seconds. Bartel also swam the 200 yard IM and placed seventh. Geraghty swam the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.18 to come in third. Kovac took first place and another state record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 46.65, beating the old record by 0.12 seconds.

For the 100 yard freestyle, Geraghty took first place with a time of 45.92. Sabercats had two swimmers place in the 500-yard freestyle taking second and fourth place. Dauksher took second with a time of 4:35.70 and Worlund took fourth at 4:38.28. Dauksher, Geraghty, Holt, and Johnson took second place in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:24.98. Fossil did not place in the 100-yard breaststroke and did not compete in the 100-yard backstroke.

A team of four of the strongest Fossil swimmers stepped on deck for the 400-yard freestyle relay seeded first with a time of 3:03.99 from preliminaries the day before. Their biggest opponent, Regis, was a hefty four seconds behind their time in preliminaries with a 3:07.33. Both teams dropped time, but one dropped 5.06 seconds which took not only the lead but the meet. To describe the final relay as intense would be an understatement. The boys from both sides swam with every last ounce of strength they had, but Regis was sick of coming in second to the Sabercats. With a time of 3:03.00 Fossil took second place in both the 400-yard freestyle relay and the State meet with a total of 286 points. Despite the loss of their three-year year winning streak the team was in good spirits and cheered on fellow teammate Danny Kovac when he was named Swimmer of the Year along with Regis Jesuit swimmer Elijah Warren.

This is an incredible team of dedicated young men who wake every morning to hit the pool or gym and hit them again in the afternoon. Although the seniors had to walk out of VMAC as second place for the first time in their careers at Fossil they walked out with heads held high and a future to follow. The juniors, sophomores, and freshman all had a new motivation and drive for the 2018-2019 season. Can’t wait to see you at the pool next year Fossil, and congratulations to the 2017-2018 Fossil Ridge High School Boys Swim and Dive team.