FORT COLLINS – Laura Day just made her mailman’s job a lot harder.

The Lewis-Palmer junior put up the Pikes Peak area’s top finish Saturday in the 5A state swimming and diving finals, taking second in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Day’s time of 1:04.41 – a personal best and school record – was .37 of a second behind Fairview’s Kourtney Fosse and .23 off the automatic All-American time, putting her in prime position for Division-I recruitment. And that will mean more work for coach Alan Arata also.

“With that time, I’m going to get a lot of mail in the next couple of weeks for Laura,” Arata said. “And as well I should.”

Doherty’s Sarah James (fifth, 100 backstroke) and Lewis-Palmer’s Chandler Marshall (third, diving) had the other area top-5 finishes at Edora Pool Ice Center.

Read more about other area competitors in the 5A swimming notes.

“I’m happy with it,” Marshall said. “… I think I brought the team some good points.”

Regis Jesuit (356.5 points) beat rival powerhouse Cherry Creek (337) for the team title. Lewis-Palmer, buoyed by six school records, finished a school-best ninth (107).

In addition to Day’s breaststroke, the Rangers set new marks in the 100 freestyle (Karin Roh, sixth), 100 back (Alex Claude, 14th) and 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free relays. Day also broke the 50 free record in Friday’s prelims.

“Most of it was done today, when the girls just came together and stood up,” Arata said. “They now know that ‘Hey, we belong at 5A’ and this is where we really want to be too.”

And they can’t wait to come back.

Marshall clipped the board in practice Wednesday and again before Saturday morning’s prelims. Arata said her first four dives (prelims consist of eight dives, finals of three) were shaky. Marshall rebounded but finished just two points out of second place.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna sit well for about a year,” Arata said.

Day, too, is eager for another shot at a title. She was the 4A champion last year and wanted to stay on top at the higher classification.

“I was hoping that would happen,” she said. “So next year we’ll see what happens. Next year’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Lewis-Palmer’s Laure Day swam to a second-place finish on Saturday in the 100-yard breaststroke at the 5A swim meet in Fort Collins. Photo by HYOUNG CHANGE, THE DENVER POST