(Catalina Foothills won the Division II boys swim and dive title. Photo courtesy of Ralph Amsden)

By Ralph Amsden

The best teams and qualifiers showed what they were made of Saturday at the Division II state swimming championships at Mesa's Skyline Aquatic Center.

The boys of Catalina Foothills scored 312 points to take the top spot Saturday on the podium thanks in part to senior Matt Lujan, who walked away with Swimmer of the Year honors.  On the girls side, Campo Verde surprised the field by scoring 257 points, defeating both Salpointe Catholic and Catalina Foothills, who finished second and third, respectively.

Catalina Foothills’ Lujan, a University of Arizona commit, won both the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 1:56.19 and the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 50.79, bettering his qualifying time in both events.

“We have a great group of guys this year, and I know my teammate Brooks Fail won a couple events for us (200 and 500 yard freestyle), and we both just tried to help out our relay teams,” said Lujan, who added that his goal going into this season was to take first in both events, especially the backstroke, where he was edged out by a teammate last year.

The most impressive performance on the girls’ end belonged to a Shadow Mountain senior, Tennessee commit Hannah Holman, who came in with an All-American qualifying time in the 200 yard individual medley and All-American consideration in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Holman won both events with a time of 2:02 in the individual medley and 1:03.83 in the breaststroke and took home the award for girls Swimmer of the Year. Still, the most special moment for Holman might have been the few minutes she spent with her 200 yard freestyle relay team before the race.

Holman took a moment to huddle with her teammates, shed a few tears, and reflect on what has been an elite run as a prep swimmer.

“It’s a bittersweet sadness,” Holman said. “It’s so fun to be able to be here with them and get a medal (the Shadow Mountain relay team finished fourth). We’ve been working on our splits all season and it’s neat as a senior to see the team rally behind each and every individual.”

Also winning two individual events on the girls’ side was Sabino’s Taylor Nations, a junior who took both the 100 yard freestyle and 100 yard backstroke.

One of the more surprising performances of the day came from Gilbert Classical Academy’s Austin Baker, who came in with the fifth best qualifying time in the 50 yard freestyle and the third best time in the 100 yard freestyle and ended up winning both events. Davis seemed surprised by his 21.74 time in the 50 yard freestyle, saying he had “never been that fast” before, and that he was worried he wouldn’t perform well in the 100, as he was tired and had very little turnaround time.

He credited his teammates for the boost.

“I couldn’t do it without my teammates,” said Davis, whose teammates continued to boisterously cheer for him through the duration of all his post-win media interviews. “They get me pumped up and I didn’t want to let them down. “

The meet was not without a little controversy, as an official loudly threatened to disqualify and “kick out” a member of the Notre Dame Prep relay team for ignoring instructions relating to his swim cap during the initial 200 yard medley relay, a race that Notre Dame won. 

No one was penalized, and the Notre Dame boys ended up finishing second overall behind Catalina Foothills.

Other individual winners at the D-II state meet included Zabric Kline (Bourgade) in the 100 yard butterfly and Grant Sugaski (Casa Grande) in the 100 yard breaststroke. For the girls, Hannah Orbach-Mandel (Catalina Foothills) won the 200 yard freestyle, Olivia McNally (Green Fields Country Day) the 50 yard freestyle, Katie Higgins (Veritas) the 100 yard butterfly, and Nicole Matheson (Sunrise Mountain) the 500 yard freestyle.

To get all of the Division I and II state championship results go here.