The Pirates re-entered boys swimming competition March 5 and, despite missing half an already small roster, they won two events and scored a total of 40 points in the dual meet with Arvada.

Englewood had a boys swim team for many years but it faded away due to lack of participation. Renewed interest of about a dozen athletes led the school to again field a team.

Unfortunately, conflicting duties resulted in about half of the boys missing the March 5 competition.

“This is a pretty good showing when you consider we only had five kids in the water and we have no one on the team with varsity swimming competition experience,” coach Eric Craven said.

Hopefully, all the swimmers will be available March 13 for the dual meet with Lakewood and March 17 when the Pirates host the annual Intra-State 8.

The Pirates invite seven other teams to take part in the Intra-State 8. Each team has only one entry in each event.

Both the March 13 and 17 meets are at home. Englewood swims its home meets in the high school pool, at the northeast corner of the school building. The pool entrance is off the parking lot adjacent to the school’s tennis courts.

Englewood actually got off to an exciting start March 5 against Arvada as the Pirates 200 medley relay team of Mike Snell, Eduardo Velazquez, Nick Steverson and Garrett Heindrich finished first with a time of 2:41.61.

Later in the meet, the same team took runner-up honors in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 2:20.69.

Joseph Sampson scored a runner-up finish in the 50 freestyle with a time of 32.46 seconds but Velazquez was the only one of the Pirates to win an individual event as he took first in the 500 freestyle with a time of 6:49.11.

During a break in the action, Velazquez said he decided to come out for the team because swimming is fun and he has been swimming since he was a little kid.

The freshman said the practices for high school swimming are a little harder than he expected, but so far, he has been able to keep up with it.

He said his best stroke is the freestyle but he also likes to swim the butterfly. But he acknowledged swimming the butterfly is more difficult than swimming freestyle.

“We’ve only been practice a couple weeks but I know I am a better swimmer now than I was when we started,” he said. “I think the biggest improvement is in my swimming techniques and, as I work on those techniques, they should get better and I should go faster.”

Teammate Nick Steverson said he joined the squad because he likes being in the water and he, too, thinks swimming is fun.

Steverson, a sophomore, said he found the practices hard and demanding at first but he stuck with it and is seeing the results.

“When we first started practices and we did the 1,000 yards warm-up, I barely was able to get through it,” he said. “But, I am stronger and have more stamina now so I can complete the practice without any pauses.”

Steverson said his best event and his favorite is the breaststroke.

He said the technique just came natural to him because he learned the breaststroke when he was little. He also likes breaststroke because he has his head up out of the water to breathe on every stroke.

Steverson’s other sport is cross country and he manages the girls swim team.

Steverson likes to run and says running cross country helps him prepare for the swimming season. He said it is his plan to do some swimming and some running this summer just to stay sharp for the two sports he competes in for the high school.