One Bolt senior won state gold in a pair of events he’s been wanting to swim for two years.
Another took gold — the first of his career — in an event he’s refused to swim at two previous state meets.
Together Gunnar Poley and JR Albers led the Thunder Basin boys to a second-place Class 4A team finish and silver medals Friday morning at the Class 4A state swimming championships at the Gillette Aquatic Center. Thunder Basin finished with 186 points, one point ahead of third-place Casper Kelly Walsh.
Poley won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.99 seconds and the 100 in 46.31. His 20.88 time in the 50 freestyle prelims was up for All-American consideration.
“It meant a lot,” Poley said. “I haven’t really gotten to feel that good in a while. This whole season, I haven’t been swimming as well as I’ve wanted to swim in those races. I just haven’t felt like where I wanted to be.”
Poley, who was the 100 backstroke champion in 2016 and 2017, said he had his heart set on two races — the sprint freestyle events — before the state meet.
The senior actually wanted to swim those events last year at state, but he took the advice of coach Josh Bott on which events to swim so the team would do well.
“He kind of took one for the team last year,” Albers said.
Poley swam the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke last year in his two individual events and finished second in both. Senior Ty Conklin took the sprint events and won silver in both.
This year, the sprint events belonged to Poley.
“Last year, I kind of just went with what Josh said and he told me we would score better. I trusted him in it and we did well,” Poley said. “I definitely knew that I could have won those races last year. Going in and pulling out a 20-second 50 freestyle time really means everything to me. That was my major goal this season. I was really happy I did that.”
Go for gold
Poley went into the sprint events as the favorite, based off his times during the season. The same wasn’t the case for Albers. He had the fourth-best qualifying time during the season and was second after prelims.
In fact, the 500 isn’t even Albers favorite event.
“I’ve never really been a 500 swimmer. I’ve always refused to,” he said. “My sophomore year, I had a fast 500 time. I didn’t want to swim it, so I didn’t. My junior year, I had a fast 500 time. I didn’t want to swim it, so I didn’t. I always refused because I’m not a distance swimmer. I always told myself that I’m a sprinter.”
In Friday’s final, Albers reverted back to his sprinter’s mentality and won the gold medal over Dean Lyon of Green River in 4:56.11.
“When I touched the wall, it was the greatest feeling ever,” he said. “I (looked to the scoreboard) and saw that I was a state champion. The closest I got before was either in the 200 freestyle relay last year or my sophomore year in the backstroke I got third. It felt amazing.”
The senior admitted that at the 300-yard lap, when Lyon was a body length and a half ahead of him, he told himself he didn’t think he would catch him.
But as he made his move, Albers had all the Bolts fans, including coach Jade Moser, cheering loudly. In the final turn, he and Lyon were even. In the last 15 yards he passed the Green River senior and won by 0.3 seconds.
“That was an amazing race,” Moser said. “That was my race of the day for me. That last 50 I don’t even know where he got the energy to do that. It was fantastic.”
To the fans and spectators at Friday’s final, Albers made the move and won the gold in the last 15 yards. But for him, the win came earlier.
“Something clicked,” he said. “Since it’s the 500 and it’s such a long race, you think to yourself a lot. The entire race I was telling myself, ‘C’mon JR, you can go faster. You’ve got this. Come on. Go.’
“In the last 100 my mind went blank and I don’t really remember much of it. It just connected. The only thing I remember telling myself is don’t breathe.”
Set up for silver
Albers and Moser talked before Friday’s 500 final and the first-year coach gave him a message.
“Pretty much what Jade told me before my 500 was that in order for us to get second (as a team), I had to win my 500,” Albers said.
Moving up was a common theme in the message relayed from Moser and the veteran swimmers to all the Bolts.
Moser scored out the points after the prelims, even though after Friday’s finals she admitted she didn’t want to. But scoring out the points showed that the Bolts went into Friday’s final a few points behind Casper Kelly Walsh for second.
“We talked to the team in the morning and said every single swim is important and that they all have to do better than they did yesterday,” Moser said. “And ... I’ve never seen them so fired up. They were so ready and jacked up and did what they did.”
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