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Fossil Ridge swimming state champ voted Blue Federal Credit Union Athlete of the Week

chris abshire, fort collins coloradoan
·2 min read
Blue Federal Credit Union is partnering with the Coloradoan to honor our best Fort Collins-area high school athletes every week. Check coloradoan.com/sports every Monday to vote.
Blue Federal Credit Union is partnering with the Coloradoan to honor our best Fort Collins-area high school athletes every week. Check coloradoan.com/sports every Monday to vote.

This week's Blue Federal Credit Union Athlete of the Week award is diving right back into the pool!

Fossil Ridge boys swimmer Brennen O'Neil took top honors in the Fort Collins area for May 5-11 after winning a Class 5A boys swimming state championship last week.

The SaberCats junior dominated the 200-yard individual medley, holding a wire-to-wire lead and winning by more than 1.5 seconds.

O'Neil also set a personal record time in the all-stroke event with his time of 1 minute, 49.13 seconds for his first-ever state title.

The win gave him a clean sweep of the city, conference and state championships this season, a tremendous accomplishment in the competitive Colorado swimming world.

In addition to his individual win, O'Neil helped Fossil's 200 and 400 free relay squads take top-5 finishes in both events en route to a fourth-place overall team result.

Fossil Ridge's Brennen O'Neil starts his team off in the 400 yard freestyle relay during the Class 5A state swimming championships on May 11 at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton.
Fossil Ridge's Brennen O'Neil starts his team off in the 400 yard freestyle relay during the Class 5A state swimming championships on May 11 at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center in Thornton.

O'Neil is the second straight swimmer and third Fossil Ridge athlete to win the Blue FCU Athlete of the Week honor this school year, joining Windsor swimmer Jake Eccleston plus Fossil Ridge basketball's Cayden Clagett and SaberCats' softball freshman Avery Akers.

The SaberCats swimmer won the fan poll with a majority (55.4%) of the 6,293 votes cast.

That beat out other elite performances from his fellow nominees:

  • Kaden Souders, Fort Collins baseball (runner-up with 24.1%)

  • Lily Eisbrener, Timnath girls soccer

  • Nevaeh Rura, Rocky Mountain girls track and field

  • Kylie Becker, Windsor girls track and field

The Blue Federal Credit Union Athlete of the Week series features five nominees every Monday, with voting at Coloradoan.com until 11 p.m. Wednesday and the winner named on Thursday.

Previous winner: This Windsor swimming star was named Blue Federal Credit Union Athlete of the Week

Fans can nominate their favorite athletes (deadline: 11:59 p.m. every Saturday), and the Coloradoan Sports staff will ultimately select the five nominees each week.

If you have nominations for a future Athlete of the Week, please send them via email to ChrisAbshire@coloradoan.com for consideration.

View the full results:

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fossil Ridge boys swimmer Brennen O'Neil voted Coloradoan Athlete of Week