Carlos Lattanzi has maxed out his chances.

At the Hamilton High School Pool in Chandler on Dec. 13, the 10-year-old Sedona Swordfish swimmer’s first competitive try at the 500-yard freestyle qualified him for the spring Age Group State championships in the 12th and final event for which he was eligible. Lattanzi had seven first-place finishes, putting him among the top 10 swimmers in Arizona in more than half of those events.

“For Carlos to be one of the top 10 in Arizona, and have the times he has at such a young age, is incredible,” said Benny Guadarrama, Lattanzi’s coach with the Sedona Swim Team under head coach A. Jay Bronson. “It feels fantastic to have him up high in the rankings, knowing he has so much more to give and improve on.”

Andrew Tate came in just over five-and-a-half minutes in the 400-yard individual medley to join fellow 13-year-old Jaxon Oles and 9-year-old Sarina McCullough in the winner’s circle for the Sedona Swim Team at its first winter meet.

“Sarina and Jaxon are superstars,” said Guadarrama, who works with assistant coach Frank Agyagos on developing the Swordfish girls. “He pushes them past their limit in practices, he works with them on pace, and focuses on getting their heart rate going while maintaining efficient technique.

“They are improving and maturing on every aspect of the sport — walls, dives, breakouts, breathing patterns and stroke technique.”

Lattanzi’s 6:28.72 finish in the 500-yard freestyle was not only 38 seconds faster than the qualifying time for State, it was good enough to place second at the meet among boys 10 years old and younger. He missed a clean sweep of all eight events in his age group when he was disqualified from the 200-yard individual medley due to a technical lap turn error, his father, Rick Dembow, said.

“Andrew and Carlos have been training extremely hard in every practice,” Guadarrama said, “which has displayed their phenomenal improvement at every meet they swim at.”

After three more winter and spring meets and February regional championships, Lattanzi and other qualifying Swordfish will swim for state championships in their age groups Thursday through Sunday, March 10 through 13, in Oro Valley.

“Now his task in the remaining three months … is to pick and choose what six of 12 events he will go for,” Dembow said. “The next three months will be a time to gain speed and technique … during his 10 hours a week he is at the Sedona pool.”

For the full list of first-place Sedona Swim Team times and more photos, please see the Friday, Dec. 25, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.