Palmer captures 'friendly' meet

The Colorado Avalanche has the Detroit Red Wings, the Denver Broncos have the Oakland Raiders, and the Coronado boys swimming and diving team has Palmer.

That was the message Cougars coach Bob Bell had for fans before the swimmers hit the water at Thursday's meet, a 96-90 victory for Palmer.

But the scene after the competition at Coronado will probably never be repeated on ice at the Pepsi Center, when the two teams got together to decide where they were going to go out and eat together.

"The nice thing about this meet is that a lot of the guys know each other, it's a friendly rivalry," Bell said. "I was hoping it would come down to the 400 freestyle relay."

Palmer coach Geoff Lewis was hoping it wouldn't.

"We've lost (to Coronado) the last two years because of that event," Lewis said.

But this year's winner was not decided by the final event of the afternoon. Had it been, the Cougars relay team (Tim Chandler, James Nash, Derrick Timm and Robbie Hilton) would have won the meet with their 3 minute, 28.26 seconds state-qualifying time.

They finished just ahead of Palmer's Eric Bruns, Brandon Gosch, Brent Hammer and Ryan Warwick, whose 3:31.76 was also a qualifying time.

The meet was decided by the kids who didn't finish first.

"Our third swimmers really picked up some points for us," Lewis said. "But the seniors on this team only won one meet four years ago. It's been a complete turnaround."

One of those seniors (Warwick) had SQ's in the 200 (1:49.91) and 500 (5:04.08) freestyles, but was beaten in the latter by Hilton, who swam a 4:58.35. Nash also qualified in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.70) while Gosch (22.83) qualified in the 50 freestyle.

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