Laney lacking Class 5A title

George Washington star eyes state meet success to pad his record résumé

Jeremy Kempter, Special to the News

Thursday, May 18, 2006

In the past when Max Laney needed a jolt of motivation, all he had to do was look up at George Washington's swimming records board to see which marks didn't already have his name next to them.

With his senior season almost over, Laney's inspiration is nearly sapped.

He owns five school records – encompassing every individual event except the 50- and 100-meter freestyles and the 100-meter breaststroke.

Along the way, Laney set three Denver Prep League standards and earned All-American honors (in the 200-meter individual medley, 100-meter butterfly and 100-meter backstroke), in addition to earning a scholarship to Arizona State.

Now, almost as an afterthought, the only thing eluding Laney is a title or two at the Class 5A state meet, which begins tonight.

"State is more the meet that my parents are focusing me on," says Laney, an only child whose grandparents also will be cheering him on at the Edora Pool Ice Center in Fort Collins. "It's pretty important to them, too, I think, so I'll be trying my hardest."

That's all Laney has done during the past year to vault himself into the national discussion. He has been to state his three previous years but his best finish was second place last year in the 100 backstroke.

Showing the same drive that has earned him a 4.16 grade-point average, Laney trained twice a week before school at 5 a.m. He lifted weights diligently and traveled across the country to find the best competition.

"I think at some point last summer he changed his attitude about the sport and realized how fast he's going to have to be," Patriots coach Shawn Smith said. "He assumed the habit of a national level swimmer and made himself one."

Laney followed the example of his friend Chris Good, who graduated from GW last year and is on scholarship at Santa Barbara.

His improved times in the DPL and at off-season sectional meets in Orlando, Fla., and Phoenix also are the product of a five-year swimmer-coach partnership between Laney and Smith, who runs the University of Denver Hilltoppers, a club team.

"When he was in eighth grade he was not a very fast swimmer," Smith said. "He has shown an intensity that made up for lost time. He's really talented, don't get me wrong. He's just worked really hard at it."

Laney, who is propelled by his ability to dolphin-kick, will go for gold in the 100 backstroke and 200 IM - events he paced during the season with times of 51.59 seconds and 1 minute, 54.29 seconds, respectively.

He also will pitch in on George Washington's 400-meter freestyle and 200-meter medley relay teams, but those squads aren't expected to place.

Another swimmer favored to take home two championships is Mark Dylla of Heritage. The junior has won four titles in two years, capturing the 100 butterfly crown to cap each season and taking the 200 IM last year after winning the 500-meter freestyle as a freshman.

He will try to repeat what he did last year, with Chris Wiggin of Arapahoe likely to offer the stiffest challenge in the 100 butterfly.

"The great thing about Mark is I don't think he's taking anything for granted," Heritage coach Tom Byorick said. "I don't think Mark is going to have an easy time winning any of his events. There are a lot of good athletes. He's capable of getting beat, but Mark is confident."

Regis' Jay Kim also should make some noise. He had the second-best time in the 200 IM (1:54.69) and the 200-meter freestyle (1:44.92).

In the team competition, Arapahoe poses the greatest threat to Regis, champion in 14 of the past 15 seasons.

In Class 4A, Broomfield and Montrose have the talent to be considered top contenders for the team competition.

Montrose, the Rocky Mountain News' preseason No. 1, has a battle-tested trio of seniors in John Thomas, Kyle Weiss and Steve Weisner, who were sophomores on the Indians' state title team in 2004. They all are represented among the season's best times in their events, but Indians coach Silas Almgren respects the field too much to assume success.

"There's no question that our expectations are going to be very high," said Almgren, in his 15th year. "But we could use some more depth against teams like Thompson Valley, Pine Creek and Broomfield. You can never bring enough to the state meet."

Boys state swimming

• When: Today, Friday and Saturday.

• Where: Edora Pool Ice Center, 1801 Riverside, Fort Collins.

• Schedule: Today - Class 5A preliminaries, 4 p.m. Friday - Class 4A preliminaries, 9 a.m.; 5A diving preliminaries, noon; 5A swimming and diving finals, 5 p.m. Saturday - 4A diving preliminaries, 10:30 a.m.; 4A swimming and diving finals, 3:30 p.m.