Silver Creek boys swim and dive repeats as Class 4A state runner-up

Stephen Codevilla, Joshua Dowlin and Hudson Kammerer were three of the biggest contributors, but the Silver Creek High School boys swim and dive team had help from its entire roster en route to finishing second at the Class 4A state championships on May 13.

Silver Creek, which holds athletes from multiple St. Vrain Valley schools including Niwot and Silver Creek high schools, was runner-up to Cheyenne Mountain for the second consecutive season after winning the 2021 state title.

"I love my team, all my teammates," said Codevilla, a Niwot High junior and the younger brother of seven-time Niwot High girls swimming individual state champion Mary Codevilla. "It's sad we're losing a lot of seniors this year, a lot of great people. I'm going to miss them a lot, but I think the team did great today."

Joshua Dowlin is one of those seniors whose high school career came to a memorable close at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton. To begin the day, Dowlin took fifth in the state diving championships with 449.25 points. He then took a few hours to relax before helping the Raptors to a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Head coach Debbie Stewart was appreciative of the impact that Dowlin and his older brother Jacob Dowlin, who graduated last year, had on Silver Creek's program.

"Josh will get up to be an emotional one, just because I've had them (including Jacob Dowlin) for a long time," Stewart said. "I've watched their family grow in everything. Josh has been an amazing leader all the way. He has pumped up the whole team because he wants this just as bad."

Dowlin joined fellow seniors Brayden Stalcup, Kammerer and the junior Codevilla in that 200-free relay, which turned out to be Silver Creek's top relay event finish. Three races later, iIn the day's 12th and final event, seniors Sean Wyatt, Evan Welding, Stalcup and junior Justin Gawrych bounced back from placing 10th in the prelims and took fifth in the finals of the 400-free relay.

"Just like when we swam conference, we are pretty heavily backloaded," Stewart said. "Our breaststrokers, our backstrokers and our freestylers are where we pulled in a lot of points."

Codevilla had Silver Creek's highest individual finish at fourth in the 100 backstroke.

Stewart said that while her swimmers don't reach the podium often, the Raptors' depth more than makes up for that as Silver Creek produced yet another state runner-up trophy.

"We don't have top dogs, we don't have those podium swimmers, but it's our depth that has helped us all three years," Stewart said.