Garrett Campbell is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism Student assigned to cover Phoenix Country Day School for AZPreps365.com

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — The Small Schools Championships concluded with the Eagles taking home the title on Saturday.

Phoenix Country Day’s swim team scored a combined 621 points, a convincing win over 25 schools competing in Saturday’s meet. Gilbert Classical Academy scored 410 combined points as the runner-up, followed by 343 combined points Notre Dame Preparatory High School.

The Eagles had 345 points from the girl’s team and 245 points from the boys, which helped lead them to their respective first and second place finishes in team scores.

It helped the Phoenix Country Day’s swim & dive teams - winners of the Eagle Invitational in September – earn another major win to a successful 2023-2024 season.

Head swim coach Mike Maczuga is optimistic his team’s effort and output will help improve his team going into the state championships, which take place at 2 p.m. on Nov. 4 at the Phoenix Country Day School.

“Pretty solid swims,” coach Maczuga said. “We had a few swimmers that fell a little short.

That’s typical, coming off our fall break. When we do that, we have some ups and downs. We have some kids that swam great, and some kids that struggled. We’ll get it together by state.”

Overall, it was a strong showing for a team headed into the important meet in November.

Phoenix Country Day had multiple swimmers earn first place in long-distance heats,
and in some cases the event itself.

Juniors Lelia Symington and Julia Lotz had key roles in securing many of those long-distance victories for the Eagles.

Symington won the Girls 500-yard freestyle event with a final time of 5:2.10, and the Girls 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.48.

She credited her experience as part of the success.

“I’ve been swimming competitively for about 10 years now, and I started doing distance when I was about 12,” Symington said. “I’ve just always been really good at endurance, and I really like the longer races. I feel like there’s more of an opportunity to think about strategy when you’re racing, rather than a sprint when you just get up and go.”

Lotz won the Girls 200-IM event in 2:11.37, bettering 29 swimmers.

She explained the difficulties that arise with the individual
medley, and how her strengths counter that throughout the event.

“Definitely for me, it’s the backstroke,” Lotz said. “I’m not a backstroker, so I always fall behind. I just have to go out strong enough to be able to maintain a good place in the backstroke, then takeoff on the breaststroke and whoop them all.”

Phoenix Country Day won the Small Schools Championships despite some changes to their lineup.

“I mixed our lineup up, because I’m looking to find other opportunities for state,” Maczuga said. “What I do is, after our first Eagle Invite, I figure out what other events they might be ranked in ... So, I’m just opening my options, then I’ll be able to build my strongest team after that.”

Now the focus for Phoenix Country Day School turns to the state championships on Nov. 4.