The word around the Mesa Skyline High School Aquatics Center prior to the start of the Division I boys and girls swim finals was that the meet would be very fast.

And from the first wave, until the final ripple settled, speed it was as two individual state records fell, many more were close, and the day ended with the same school winning both team titles for the first time since 2020.

The day didn’t disappoint.

“Depth is always the key,” said Chaparral coach Russell Krzyzanowski, who guided both his boys and girls to championships.

His two teams combined for eight first-place finishes and 19 top four finishes overall, to easily distance the competition.

Chaparral became the sixth girls program in the state to win five consecutive titles.

“Last year we fell short by two points and we have been on a mission since,” Krzyzanowski added, referencing his boys runner-up showing last season.

Leading the way for the Firebirds was senior Tristan Dalbey with three firsts (50 free, 200 and 400 relays) and sophomore Ella Cosgrove with an amazing four first-place finishes, including two individual titles (200 free and 500 free) and two relays (200 medley, 400 free).

As a team, the girls collected 315 points to easily outpace Horizon (262) and Desert Vista (224). On the boys’ side, Chaparral piled up an amazing 390.5 points, lapping runner-up Desert Vista (273) and perennial power Brophy College Prep (224.5).

Not to be outdone were two other amazing record-setting individual performances.

Leading off the meet was the Desert Vista boys’ 200-yard medley team of Ryne Davenport, Tres Mungia, Jason Sugihara and Caleb Stanley, who teamed up to set a state record (1:31.75), besting the 2013 Chaparral time of 1:32.01.

The other record broken was in the boy’s 200-yard freestyle by Higley’s uber decorated Keaton Jones. The senior clocked in with a 1:35.72, handily erasing the 2010 time of 1:36.33 by Arizona swim legend Tyler Messerschmidt of Desert Edge.

“I’m a grinder. I have very lofty goals and I just work as hard as I can to reach them,” Jones said.

“I am ready for my next goals, the first I guess is an NCAA championship and then eventually the Olympics, which has always been my goal since I was a little kid,” the Cal commit added.

And while several rival coaches referred to Jones as possibly the second greatest high school swimmer in Arizona history (behind Ryan Hoffer), his own coach, Jennifer Accra, went beyond.

“I am so lucky to have coached him,” she said. “He has always been so poised and has helped me actually and he has been such a great teammate. As great a swimmer he is, he has been just as great a person.”

The meet concluded with the Swimmer of the Year awards, which went to Jones and Mesa Red Mountain junior Sophia Jahn, while the Coach of the Year awards went to Horizon’s Samantha Kramer (girls) and Desert Vista’s Bowen Johnson (boys).