ARVADA — Up until the 100-yard freestyle Saturday, Mountain View senior JJ Phillips admitted he wasn’t having his best meet during the Class 4A state championships at the Arvada Aquatics Center.
Phillips and the Mountain Lions finished fifth in the meet-opening 200 medley relay, an event they were seeded third for going into the competition. Phillips then finished third in the 50 freestyle for the third year in a row.
Following some recovery time and a conversation with his head coach Wietse Wullink, Phillips stepped up and turned in the best race of his high school career, touching the wall in a school-record time of 44.42 seconds, .12 ahead of Mullen’s Thomas Bradac.
“I had an off meet up until that point,” Phillips said. “I was swimming scared. I was not in a great place mentally. I did not have the confidence going into that race. So that race was a reflection of the training and preparation that I’ve done this season for this moment.
“When I got up on the blocks, the phrase I kept repeating to myself was ‘trust your training’ and it worked. This meet was a very humbling meet for me, and I mentally struggled my way through it up until that 100. It just took perseverance and a lot of mental strength to get me back to where I was to swim that race the way I needed to swim.”
The championship came after he finished third in that event each of the previous two years. After five individual third-place medals over three state meets, he finally got to experience the view from the top of the awards podium.
Mountain View went on to finish fifth as a team at the meet with 216 points. The Mountain Lions were only 5.5 points behind fourth-place Littleton.
In addition to Phillips’ victory in the 100 freestyle and third place in the 50 freestyle (20.84 seconds), the Mountain Lions also got top 10 finishes from Kane Willis, who was sixth in the 100 backstroke (53.80), and Nathan Dicks, who was eighth in the 50 freestyle (22.11) and 10th in the 100 freestyle (49.58).
Willis was also ninth in the consolation final of the 100 freestyle, in 49.90.
In addition to the Mountain Lions’ fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay (1:37.16), they were third in the 200 freestyle relay (1:27.95) and fourth in the 400 freestyle relay (3:15.07).
Four years ago, Mountain View didn’t have any swimmers advance to the finals of the state meet. Saturday, they were fifth out of 28 teams that scored points.
“It feels great,” Willis said. “I forget what we got last year, but a huge step up. Really, I think it came from all the boys all together. Everyone contributed, even the ones who didn’t get a swim, it just all contributes to us being together as a team, showing up as a team, competing as a team.
“If there wasn’t an awareness of the Mountain View swim team before, I think now there is. I think we’ve really built a foundation here.”
Mountain View diver Carter Vining finished just off the awards podium Friday, coming in 11th with a score of 376.75.
Loveland finished 18th with 65 points. The Red Wolves’ only individual qualifiers for Saturday’s finals were senior Evan Phillips, who finished seventh in the championship final of the 50 freestyle (21.62), and senior Will Schneider, who finished sixth in the consolation final of the 100 butterfly (55.54).
The Red Wolves finished 10th in the championship final of the 200 freestyle relay (1:31.76), seventh in the consolation final of the 200 medley relay (1:43.69), and sixth in the consolation final of the 400 freestyle relay (3:26.30).
Thompson Valley’s only qualifier for the swimming finals was sophomore Cooper Christensen, who finished fifth in the championship final of the 100 breaststroke (59.85).
Christensen went into the meet as the 17th seed with a best time of 1:01.88. He shaved more than a second off his time in the preliminaries, qualifying ninth for the finals in 1:00.58.
Then, in the finals, he went below 1 minute for the first time in his fifth-place finish.
“It’s more just putting in work, having dedication and consistency more than anything,” Christensen said. “Even last week to yesterday I dropped almost five seconds, and then dropped more time today. As a sophomore, I’m overly proud that I can do this as a sophomore. It was a bit of a rocky season, but I’m glad I finished it the way I did today.”
Diver Nathaniel Chou scored points for the Eagles on Friday, finishing fifth with a personal-best score of 493.35.
Thompson Valley finished 22nd in the team standings with 36 points.
