(Go here for all of the results for the D-I, II and III swim and dive finals.)

Imagine you are a coach rooting for your team.

That happens all the time. Now imagine you are a coach and most of your competition is rooting for your team too. 

That rarely happens. 

Saturday at the Skyline Aquatics Center in Mesa, however, that exact scenario unfolded at the D-I boys state finals for Pinnacle and its first-year head coach Lauren Rodrigues. 

The Pioneers, who had never advanced as far as they did in school history while in the prelims on Friday, found themselves in the driver’s seat for their first team title entering the finals, with many of the spectators and even coaches buzzing about the possibility.

And it took a 1st place showing in the 400-yard free relay in the meet’s final event, but Pinnacle was able to seal the victory with 309 points, just ahead of Chaparral (304) to bring home the school’s first boy’s swimming team title. 

“It’s amazing, especially after all the hard work and huge goals we have accomplished this season, this is just amazing,” an elated Rodrigues said.

“Going into this, other teams, everyone was talking. We’ve never made it this far; we’ve never been on top this much. It just feels good."

Powered by the first-place finish in the 400-yard free relay (3:05.67) by Jeremy Rosen, Eduardo Flynn, Lewis Esterly and Orion Dietz, the Pioneers were barely able to hang on with a hard-charging Chaparral squad touching the wall second in 3:07.79. 

This race decided the meet.

Along the way, the Pioneers were able to get other first place showings by their 200-yard free relay team (1:24.71) and Rosen, with a first in the 500-yard free (4:32.69).

As for the Chaparral, they got record-setting performances in two races to keep them in the hunt the entire meet.

The Firebirds’ 200-yard medley relay team kicked off the meet with a blistering 1:30.66, besting their own state record from Friday night’s prelims. That team consisted of Ethan Mindlin, Hudson Schuricht, Ethan Reniewicki and Seth Crow. 

Later in the meet, Schuricht would break a 2014 AZ State Record (by Matt Anderson) in the 100-yard breaststroke, turning in a 54.51 time. 

The Firebirds also got another first-place finish from Schuricht (200-yard medley) and two firsts from Crow (50-yard free and 100-yard free).   

Brophy (256.6), Mesa Mountain View (175) and Chandler Hamilton (154) rounded out the top 5 team scoring.

The Swimmer of the Year Award went to Casteel’s August Vetsch.

The girls’ D-I state finals proved to be a coming out party for one particular swimmer,

Anthem Boulder Creek’s Delaney Barbee.

The frosh started the finals swimming the first leg of the 200-yard Medley Relay for the Jaguars, a race she and her teammates (Kelly Chang, Ella Schoenfelder and Aryan Smith-Petersen) won by a nose over Horizon with a time of 1:49.13. 

It would be the first of four times she would hit the medal stand, winning the 100-yard free (50.78), taking 5th in the 100-yard backstroke along with another 1st place finish on the winning 400-yard Medley Relay.  

Barbee was happy how her first state finals meet went.

“It was really cool and I’m glad I could do it with all my senior friends that will be graduating next year so it was really cool to win with them,” Barbee said.

“Winning that last relay (400-yard medley) was really cool for us. We went in as top seed, and it got taken from us yesterday (in prelims) and we really wanted it back.”

Overall, during the meet, there was a lot of ‘taking’ by Desert Vista. 

The Thunder racked up 271 points, good enough to get by second place Horizon (259.5). Boulder Creek took third (247), while Chaparral (243.5) and Red Mountain (133) rounded out the top five.

Desert Vista got first-place finishes by Clare Luken (200-yard Free), Ellie Kayser (500-yard Free) and the 200-yard Freestyle Relay Team of Luken, Kayser, Victoria Nguyen and Holland Stocker. 

Mesa Red Mountain standout Sophia Jahn finished her career with her 3rd straight 50-yard freestyle title, finishing in 23.36.

The D1 Girls Swimmer of the Year Award went to Gilbert’s Lorin Tobler, who captured firsts in the 100-yard Butterfly and the 100-yard Backstroke.

The D2 Girls State Finals in the afternoon session proved to be a two-horse race between Scottsdale Desert Mountain and last year’s team state champion Tucson Catalina Foothills.

In the end, the Wolves bested Catalina Foothills with a 365-point meet total to 312. Campo Verde (231), Canyon Del Oro (218) and Millennium (180.5) rounded out the top five.

After winning the meet’s opening relay, the 200-yard Medley Relay, Desert Mountain went on to win six of the meet’s final 10 races. 

That Wolves’ first relay win was made up of the quartet of Ellie Horning, Gabrielle Primiano, Emmy Therrien and Juliette Daignault who turned in a time of 1:44.20, over seven seconds ahead of Millennium’s entry.   

Primiano, last year’s D2 Swimmer of the Year, added individual first place finishes in the 200-yard IM (2:03.95) and the 100-yard Breaststroke (1:03.49). The senior also anchored yet another relay first for the Wolves when they grabbed gold in the 400-yard Freestyle, pairing with Horning, Daignault and Therrien once again.

Therrien was just as dangerous to her competition as Primiano was all meet long.

After the junior won the 100-yard Butterfly in 54.59, she came back and doubled down with a gold medal winning performance in the 500-yard Freestyle in 4:58.20.

Daignault won gold in the 200-yard Freestyle with a time of 1:51.57.

Catalina Foothills Amber Janky, who was named the 2023 D2 Swimmer of the Year, helped carry her team to second place when she won both the 50-yard Freestyle (23.51) and the 100-yard Freestyle (50.07) and anchored the 200-yard Free Relay team to victory along with teammates Wren Smith, Julia Beskind and Leila Stafford. 

In the diving portion of the meet, Cactus Shadows Diver, junior Iona Moffat, shattered the state record, racking up 520.45 points.    

The boy’s D2 finals was filled with far less drama, as Millennium crushed the competition with 439 points, enroute to its second consecutive team title. 

Canyon Del Oro (270), Desert Mountain (265), Catalina Foothills (195) and Verrado (126) lined up behind the Tigers.

Led by 2023 D2 Swimmer of the Year Bartek Bednarz, the Tigers won eight of the meet’s 11 events, including three of the four relays and three first place finishes. 

Bednarz was part of the winning 200-yard Medley Relay (with Landon Suaverdez, Marcos Bravo and Cole Faut) and the 400-yard Freestyle Relay (with Suaverdez, Kartsen Eichler and Hart) and took first in the 100-yard Freestyle (46.79) and the 100-yard Breaststroke (57.72).

Eichler and Bravo teamed up with Faut and Shane Stevens to win the 200-yard Freestyle Relay (1:27.38) while Eichler won the 200-yard Freestyle (1:42.62), Bravo grabbed first in the 100-yard Butterfly (50.83) and Suaverdez bested the field in the 100-yard Backstroke (51.333).

D-3 CHAMPS

The Arizona College Prep girls took home the top team prize in D-III. (Photo courtesy of Bob Kosower.) 

The Arizona College Prep boys also brought home some D-III team championship hardware. (Phot courtesy of Bob Kosower)