THORNTON >> Three years of heartbreak for Wesley Schlachter and Soren Koschmann evaporated in the blink of an eye at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center on Friday night.

Or, rather, in 3 minutes, 1.92 seconds.

After most of the Class 5A state swimming championships were set and done, and the crowd in the stands above had thinned, the pair of Fairview senior leaders — along with senior Jack Garnett and freshman Anders Koschmann — saved their best performance for last. The quartet won the 400-yard freestyle relay state title with one final swim from Soren, who edged Fossil Ridge’s anchor by a mere 0.78 seconds.

Schlachter hugged Garnett in jubilation, then later said, “Sophomore year, we lost. I remember that Soren and I, we had a conversation. Like, ‘We’re not going to lose next year.’ And then we went out there and we broke the school record. We had a great time and we still lost to Cherry Creek. I don’t know if distraught’s the word, but we were just so disappointed that we had lost.”

Schlachter took care of the first leg of the race and kept his teammates in line with the top competitors in the other lanes. Anders, in second, started to push the Knights ahead, if only by a little. Garnett maintained their position with relative ease, only to see Soren put the rest of the competition to bed. All four beamed with excitement in the immediate wake of the accomplishment that had eluded them for so long. The door that had been taunting them was finally closed.

“I was insanely happy,” Soren said. “I was pretty locked in. Standing up the blocks when Jack was coming in on his last 50, I was trembling, shaking. But, you know, I was just going to trust my training, swim it how I always would, no matter what place we were going. It just was so much easier that we were first going into the last leg, and I could just carry it home for the team.”

It meant that much more that his freshman sibling was along for the ride in the only season they could swim together.

“I’ve seen my brother look for that win last year and the year before, and it just didn’t come,” Anders said. “Coming in as the underdog and the youngster, it was super amazing to be able to help the team get a win that they haven’t gotten ever, and against Cherry Creek for the first time in forever. I’m just super happy I could contribute to my brother’s win. I know he really wanted this, so I’m very happy about that.”

Garnett, for his part, was thrilled he could finally help pull one over on the Bruins, who won the meet easily with 417 points. The Knights placed sixth with 220.

“Last swim of my high school career, I really wanted to beat them,” Garnett said. “We don’t like ‘Creek’ at Fairview. They’re just the enemy. I couldn’t believe it until I saw it, man.”

The Knights finished seventh in the 200 medley relay at 1:34.12, while Schlachter placed eighth in the 200 freestyle (1:41.34) and ninth in the 500 free (4:42.29). Soren Koschmann took home third in the 100 free (45.37 seconds) and sixth in the 100 backstroke (50.93), while Anders Koschmann took it home with seventh in the 100 back (51.13).

Sweet, sweet silver

While the Knights stole the show with their lone gold, a different Legacy relay very nearly achieved the same feat, albeit in the 200 free relay just a couple of events before. The team of Tyler Mills, Hector Mu, Austin Neeley and DK Nakashima sped to second with a time of 1:23.57, trailing behind Cherry Creek by just 1.12 seconds.

The ascension to silver came as quite the reward for Neeley, who just a few months ago wasn’t sure what his junior season would look like. He’s been battling severe dizziness and migraines for the better part of seven months and said that it sometimes led to his getting lost mid-swim.

“It took a lot of physical therapy, a lot of trying to figure it out,” Neeley explained. “It also just took a lot of mental fortitude on my part, just because it was difficult and very, very discouraging. I wasn’t able to swim nearly as (much) yardage as before. Mid-October is when it all started. We still don’t really know how and we still don’t really know what it is, but now I’ve been swimming 500 yards of practice.”

Before, he was putting in upward of 6,000 yards five to six times per week. On Friday, he also added fourth in the 200 medley relay (1:32.38), 19th in the 50 free (21.60) and 20th in the 100 free (55.35). His teammate, Mu, chipped in 10th in the 50 free (21.21) and 11th in the 100 fly (50.65).

Neeley said he looks forward to what his final season with the Lightning will bring, especially given the challenges he faced as a junior.

“I think the meets are what really keep me going because while they make me incredibly dizzy and make it incredibly difficult to continue, they still build my motivation,” he said.