craigdailypress.com

First-year swimmer Javier Ochoa, a sophomore, is finally starting to be a force on the Bulldogs varsity swim team.

On Saturday in Glenwood Springs, Ochoa led the way for Moffat County High School (MCHS) in the triangular meet by taking second in the 100-meter backstroke with a time 1:26.65. Ochoa also was on the 400-meter freestyle team that finished in second place with a time of 4:29.58. Other swimmers on the relay team were John Ilko, a freshman, Randy Runyan, a sophomore, and Grant Hudish, a sophomore.

"I thought that I did pretty good at the meet," said Ochoa. "For me being the first year in swimming and never doing competition before, I felt like I had a really good meet."

As a team the swimmers set 14 new personal records.

"We had a lot of new personal records and that is a good sign for us," said coach Jim Vorhies. "We are peaking at the right time and overall our times are dropping."

In the team standings, Glenwood Springs won the meet with 132 points. The Bulldogs were second with 87 points and Cortez came in third with 29 points.

"Glenwood Springs has some tough swimmers," said Vorhies. "They are a good team."

With the Western Slope Regionals slated for Friday and Saturday in Montrose, Ochoa believes the team is starting to come together.

"As a team, I think that we are doing really good," said Ochoa. "Glenwood Springs was really fast and I thought that they were really good. We put up a good fight with them."

Other swimmers who took second were the 200-meter freestyle relay team of Parker Moore, a sophomore, Jeff Olree, a sophomore, Josh Shipley a junior, Danny Arnold, a junior, with a time of 2:00.18.

The 200-meter medley relay team of Shipley, Arnold, Olree, Moore finished in second with a time of 2:10.06. Olree finished in second with a time of 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:22.38 rounding out the top finishers for the swim team.

"This week, we are really tapering (taking it easy) down and we are not doing a lot of distance," said Vorhies. "We are doing a lot of technical-stuff working starts and relay take offs."