craigdailypress.com

Heading into the Class 4A Western Slope Regional swim meet, the varsity team knew it had a chance to qualify for the state meet in the 200-yard medley relay.

On Saturday in Montrose, it came up just short.

The team, consisting of Josh Shipley, a junior, Jeff Olree, a sophomore, Steven Veizaga, a senior, and Parker Moore, a sophomore, swam to a time of 1:53.60 which was good enough for a fifth-place finish but missed the state qualifying time of 1:53.

"We were pumped up and ready to go," said Shipley. "We made the times that we were shooting for. We were a little off for state times but we will make it next year."

According to Shipley, the team wasn't at full strength.

"Jeff Olree was sick during the swim," said Shipley. "Even with him being sick we still swam our personal record."

"The 200-medley relay team knocked off a second in the preliminaries and another second in the finals," said coach Jim Vorhies. "They just missed it.

"Overall, I was pleased with the way they swam," the coach said.

Other team members who placed high in the meet were:

n Veizaga, who finished in seventh in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:03.

n Moore, who finished in eighth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.11.

n Moore, who finished ninth in the 100-yard freestyle relay with a time of 54.68.

In the team standings, Moffat County finished in fifth place among seven teams.

"As a team, we finished were we thought we would," said Vorhies. "The teams that finished ahead of us swim all year round. We only swim during the swim season."

For the second straight year, Moffat County will not be sending anybody to the state meet, but Vorhies believes they are heading in the right direction.

"We are getting closer to the state qualifying times," said Vorhies. "We are improving and we only lose one senior Steven Veizaga. We have our main nucleus coming back. Next year we should send some swimmers to the state meet."