Fairview turning heads with BoCo Invite around the corner – Boulder …

Fairview boys swimming certainly has a flair for the dramatic.

Last weekend, when the Knights graced the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton for the Mountain Range High School Mustang Invite, they took the competition all the way down to the wire. Whoever won the 400 freestyle relay would walk away with the team win.

Enter Jack Garnett, Soren Koschmann, Wesley Schlacter and Layton Sealman.

Garnett started off the relay — his first time jumping into that specific race — and led things off with a 50.15-second split. The Fairview freshman paced the team well from the beginning, with his entire team and large crowd of fans cheering him on.

“It’s easy to step up and swim fast when you have a whole team behind you,” head coach Connor Corrigan said.

Koschmann clocked in at 47.69 seconds, then Schlacter followed his lead at 48.40. Sealman dominated in the final stretch to lead his team to victory, dropping an incredible 44.98 time. Earlier in the day, he completed the 100 free with a 46.69.

That last event earned the Knights 48 points to push them past Legacy, just barely, with 405 team points. The Lightning finished with 392. Corrigan and his assistant coaches worked the boys hard in the week leading up to the meet before letting them rest the day prior.

“We were all really happy with it, everyone. We got best times, new state qualifiers at that meet,” Corrigan said. “The part that I was really impressed about and happy about is on Monday, we just kind of said, ‘All right. That was fun. We did it. Congratulations, but we’re back to work today.’ And the team responded really well.”

That last-minute push, when the Knights needed it most, provided a window into the kind of success they’ve been seeing all season long. Having 42 swimmers on the team certainly doesn’t hurt.

In CHSAA’s Class 5A rankings from March 30, Fairview sat squarely at No. 5. Legacy was No. 3.

“I think everyone expects us to beat them, maybe, at dual meets, because we have such a big team,” Sealman said. “They might not expect us to win an invitational with such high-caliber swimmers and high-caliber teams such as the Mustang Invite and the BoCo Invite coming up. I think it really showed what we’re capable of. It was a breakout meet for our team.”

Now, the Knights must shift their focus toward their home dual against Boulder on Tuesday before tapering in preparation for the Boulder County Invite, set to take place at the Broomfield Community Center on April 22.

Baker, Fairview’s senior captain, looks forward to the future of the program with the level of sophomore talent it possesses this year. They’ve already more than proven they can handle the spotlight, much to the chagrin of their opponents at Mountain Range.

“This is by far the best team I’ve had, not only in terms of talent and depth, but also in terms of the team spirit,” Baker said. “I feel like, as a team, we’ve really started racing to win meets versus just racing for ourselves this year. I think it’s made a big difference.”