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Chaparral, Desert Mountain shine at state swim �inals

BY EMERIL GORDON

Progress Contributing Writer

With one event left in the state championship swim meet, Chaparral looked primed to sweep both the boys and girls state championship title. However, a lastminute push by the Desert Vista boys during the 400 freestyle relay left the Firebirds boys settling for second.

The separation came down to just two points. Desert Vista totaled 313 points while Chaparral totaled 311 points.

Coming into the meet it was Chaparral that started winning the first event, the 200-medley relay in a time of 1:34.39. However, Desert Vista wasn’t far behind in this event coming second by one hundredth of a second in 1:34.40.

“I was just like I have to do it for the boys,” said Joel Maldonado, the anchor of the relay for Chaparral. He also expressed that initially he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to pull it off against Desert Vista’s Caleb Stanley.

This event was important for a couple of reasons: It set the tone for the rest of what to expect in the meet and relays are worth double points so they(relays) can massively boost a team’s overall score.

Though Chaparral came out on top in the first event and took home the double points, Desert Vista made a statement in the opening race and showed that it was indeed a contender for the championship title.

Jack Luken, Tres Mungia, and Stanley played a huge role in keeping close enough to Chaparral during the meet with several top finishes in individual events.

Luken shined in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle winning both in commanding times 1:38.68 and 4:28.23.

Mugia brought home top finishes for the team in the 100 butterfly and breaststroke events. In the 100 butterfly he finished second behind Sunnyslope’s Colby Raffel in a still impressive 49.32 seconds. He was the top finisher in the 100 breasts as the only athlete to go sub 57 in the final finishing in 56.29 seconds. Stanley won the 50 freestyle for Desert Vista in a time of 20.88 seconds.

Along with those performances, it was the clutch 400 freestyle relay that all three of them were on that got Desert Vista to the state championship.

“It was a team effort. I am just glad to be a part of such an amazing program,” Stanley said. “All of us trained so hard and we are so happy to see it pay off.”

The boys knew coming in that winning was by no stretch of their imagination going to be an easy task, but they also knew that if they stuck together, they could do it.

“That’s what powered us over the finish line,” Luken said.

In the girl’s competition, Chaparral won by a commanding margin over Red Mountain, totaling 357.5 points while the Mountain Lions totaled 240 points.

Two relay wins plus finishing top four in almost every event they entered is what led Chaparral to the overwhelming score total. A key to how Chaparral did the rest of the meet was the fact that they came in with a championship team mindset and further set the tone in the first relay.

“I was put as a backstroker and I’m usually a breaststroker and I was told a couple times I would have to throw down a fast time for us to win,” said Blakely Schuricht, the leadoff leg of the 200-medley relay.

One of the best individual performances of the meet for Chaparral was Lauren Richards third place 500 freestyle in a time of 5:03.85. Though that may not seem like the greatest time, she came only behind Hamilton’s standout distance swimmer Audrey Pickles, who was the only girl to go under �ive minutes in 4:58.48 and three tenths behind Horizon’s Maryjane Neilson in 5:03.55. Desert Mountain’s girls and boys had an early bump in points thanks to first place finishes in the 200 medley, the first race of the Division II boys and girls meets. Both squads went on to have several top five finishes in a variety of events, including a first-place finish from Matthew Iverson in the boys’ 500 freestyle.

The Desert Mountain girls went on to edge Campo Verde by 30 points for the state title. The boys finished ahead of runner-up Catalina Foothills by nearly 50 points.

The state title for Chaparral’s girls was the fourth straight for the program. The boys, who placed first overall last year, beat out Brophy this year for second place. The Broncos were unable to compete last season due to COVID-19. Before that, they had won the title every year dating back to 1987.

Chaparral swim coach Russell Krzyzanowski was proud of the way his team competed at a high level yet again.

“I am glad we won, and we get to celebrate,” he said of the girls. “But next season will be here before we know it and we must keep growing.”

Chaparral’s girls’ swim program captured its fourth straight state championship last weekend at the state meet while the boys placed second overall, just two points behind champion Desert Vista. (Courtesy Russell Krzyzanowski)