Silver Creek boys take top honors in state swim and dive

Coach Debbie Stewart's Silver Creek swimmers and divers took home the Class 4A state title May 11, scoring 329 points, 62 points ahead of second-place Windsor High School at 267. "The class of 2024 had an amazing run," Stewart said, "finishing first in 2021, second in 2022, second in 2023 and first in 2024."

The combined team from Silver Creek and Niwot high schools started strong with a victory in the 200 Medley Relay, with senior Stephen Codevilla leading off, followed by junior Chayakorn Ngampatipatpong, junior James Story, and freshman Justin Leyba. Their time of 1:35.31 was more than 2.5 seconds ahead of the second-place team.

"We got ahead and never turned around and never looked back," Stewart said.

Story followed that by winning the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:42.08. Senior Justin Gawrych finished first in the B heat of the event with a time of 1:47.59, good for 11th place overall. In the 200 IM, Ngampatipatpong finished eighth with a time of 2:00.21 after entering the finals with the sixth-best time of 1:59.99. Sophomore Lincoln Miller placed 14th in the event with a time of 2:04.96, moving up two places from his prelim time. Junior Shobhit Joshi also swam the event, but did not make the finals.

Leyba took 12th in the 50 Freestyle with a finals time of 22.43, which was the 10th-best time overall. Leyba's prelim time of 22.77 put him in the B heat for finals. Freshman Geoffrey Waller's prelim time of 23.13 put him in a tie for 24th, just short of qualifying for the finals. Junior Braden Saunders finished in a tie for 39th with a time of 23.76.

In diving, sophomore Rider Neeb finished eighth with 448.20 points. Senior Levi Walker (13th - 405.80), senior Oliver Fischaber (15th -374.10), and senior Sam Harding (19th - 328.15) each finished in the top 20 for the Raptors. Stewart was not able to be at the diving competition, but diving coaches Shawn Gregg and Erin Lionberger were with the divers.

Stewart was pleased with Neeb's eighth-place finish. "Those guys [ahead of Neeb] are in a whole different class," Stewart said. "They are year-round divers. Ryder only does high school. He loves to play water polo, he swims for us, he loves to ski. He's very active, kind of a daredevil," Stewart said. She was also pleased with Walker, Fischhaber and Harding's performances, noting that they dive only in high school. "We don't have any club divers."

Miller was the only Raptor swimmer in the 100 Butterfly, and just missed the finals, coming in with a prelim time of 56.66, making him an alternate at 22nd.

Story continued his winning ways by taking first in the 100 Freestyle with a time of 46.34, followed by Codevilla in fourth place at 47.49. Leyba rounded out the top 10 with a time of 49.44.

"We were hoping for James to get the 100 Free and the 200 Free, and he did," Stewart said. "Another swimmer was talking smack to him before the 100 and it backfired. It got James fired up even more."

In the distance events, Gawrych finished ninth in the 500 Freestyle with a time of 4:59.07, moving up from his 10th-place finish in the prelims. Senior Jack Fischmann took 26th in the prelims with a time of 5:23.11, just missing the finals.

Waller, Gawrych, Miller and Leyba swam the 200 Freestyle Relay, finishing seventh in 1:30.79, moving up two spots from their prelim time.

Codevilla took top honors in the backstroke, winning with a time of 50.05, nearly seven-tenths of a second ahead of the second-place finisher. Neeb, who doubles as a swimmer, finished 23rd overall with a time of 1:00.07. Codevilla's time has been submitted for All-America consideration, which is given to the top 100 times in an event in the country. "It's been a long time since we had someone on the boys get it," Stewart said. "His sister Mary had quite a few. The last boys to get it were Nick Koerner and Tyler Lis. We should find out in mid-June."

Ngampatipatpong took third in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 57.98. Sophomore Daniel Tong (31st - 1:06.61) and Joshi (37th - 1:08.17) also competed in the event.

In the 400 Freestyle Relay, Codevilla, Gawrych, Ngampatipatpong and Story finished fourth with a time of 3:14.08.

Although several seniors contributed to the state title, the core of the squad will return next season, and Stewart is excited. "[Senior] Justin Gawrych had a great state meet," Stewart said. "Justin Leyba is an upcoming freshman, who false-started at the conference meet in the 100 Freestyle.. Cheya [Ngampatipatpong] is a junior and he took third in the breaststroke and eighth in the 200 IM. He's up and coming. He's a club swimmer, and he's hungry to be on the top podium next year."

Several school records were set at the state meet, including the 200 Medley Relay, Story's time in the 200 Freestyle, and Codevilla's time in the 100 Backstroke.