Dynasty: it ain’t just a soap from the ‘80s

The phrase “three-peat” hit the scene on a national scale in 1988 when LA Laker Byron Scott coined the term after his team won consecutive NBA National Championships in ‘87 and ‘88. Though they were swept by the Pistons in the finals in the following year, Laker head coach Pat Riley actually trademarked the term in 1989.
As such, when the Chicago Bulls claimed the first official NBA three-peat in 1993, Riles and Co. actually made money off the royalties from the team using the term.
After Scott uttered the word, it became a universally accepted and understood reference to repeating as champion a third time.
I wonder what word we would use to describe a 20-three-peat?
For me, the word that comes to mind immediately to describe a team that wins 23 consecutive state titles is Dynasty...and that is exactly what the Lander Tigers’ Swim team has built in almost a quarter of a century.
On February 15th, Lander claimed their usual spot at the top of the podium for 3A men’s swimming, defeating second place Rawlins by 45 points. In the process, the squad broke five state records, three of which were their own and had been held for only a day!
The team came out of the gate leaving no question they are the best. In the first race of the prelims on Friday, the team set a new state record in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:34.45 which was nine seconds faster than the second place finisher. 
Then on Saturday, they beat their fresh new record by finishing in 1:34.04. Both times put them ten seconds under the Northwest qualifying time in that event.
And the Tigers were just getting started.
Freshman Jonny Kulow made his debut, and made a statement in 3A varsity swimming by breaking the record in the 200 IM by more than a second in the finals on Saturday. This was a record held since 1996.
Kulow also qualified for Northwest Section in the 100 Free and was less than a second away from claiming the record in that race.
Whispers from the racing community is that Kulow may be an Olympic hopeful in the years ahead.
Senior Caleb Huelskamp finished his high school career with a vengeance, first by breaking the 1998 record of 20.93 in the 50 Free by touching the wall in 20.82 in the finals on Saturday. His time also earned him All American Consideration qualification.
Huelskamp went on to break the record in the 100 Breaststroke on Friday in the prelims with a time of 56.48, but apparently wasn’t satisfied, because in the finals he dropped another .68 seconds from the day before. His time on Saturday qualified him as an Automatic All American in that event.
The Tigers finished the meet strong by setting new records in the 400 Free relay, first in the preliminaries and then again in the finals where they took two seconds off their time from Friday. Finishing with their top time of 3:07.39 qualified the team for the All American Consideration.
Not surprisingly, Kulow and Huelskamp were members of both relay teams that set records.
While I would like to say that Lander needs to move up a class because their dominance of 3A swimming gives no one else a chance to claim top honors, there’s just no denying them the rewards deserving of the work their program obviously dedicates to building champion swimmers.
Champions aren’t born, they are made and Lander has discovered the recipe for producing talented, competitive swimmers. They have built a dynasty that others could and should study if they want to do the same.