Carlos Lattanzi has reached a crossroads.
The 10-year-old Sedona Swordfish swimmer brought home two bronze medals from the Arizona Short Course Age Group State Championships, setting six new personal records at the Oro Valley Aquatic Center from March 10 through March 13.
“We haven’t had places like that for about three years,” said A. Jay Bronson, head coach of the Sedona Swim Team. “He did phenomenal. Incredible accomplishment and we look forward to seeing him improve more.”
Lattanzi, seventh-best point scorer among all State swimmers in his age group of 10 years old and younger, took third in a pair of 200-yard swimming events.
He cut his best individual medley time by almost 15 seconds to 2:39.73, and his 2:15.01 in the freestyle improved almost 10 seconds on his previous top time — drops to which his father, Rick Dembow, credited a different approach.
“His meet times since November began to stagnate with no time drops,” Dembow said. “We needed to do something on our own.”
So Dembow began timing Lattanzi in practice for his six State swims every day at the Sedona Community Pool.
“Most of my son’s races were only two to six minutes long,” Dembow said. “We worked on only his dive, his turns and stroke for only the races he was to enter, continually analyzing what was working and what needed corrections until he felt very confident of exactly what times he was capable of.
“Carlos decided to abstain from the longer distance days of high volume conditioning with the Swordfish, and the modification paid off big for him.”
It helped Lattanzi beat his best 500-yard freestyle time by over 33 seconds and his previous top time in the 100-yard butterfly by over five seconds, placing fourth in both events.
Lattanzi also had help from event host Justin Slade, who is also coach and director of operations of the Flying Fish Arizona Swim Team.
“Slade graciously accepted Carlos to practice with his team for the entire event,” Dembow said, “taking him under his wing and cheering him on poolside as Carlos over and over beat the local well known favorites.”
The state’s fastest 10-year-old swimmers, including Scottsdale champion Asher Good, also took notice.
“Asher … told Carlos he has been swimming since he was five years old,” Dembow recalled, “and practices for about three hours a day under the watchful eye of his dad as well as his team coaches.”
Lattanzi’s other PRs led to fifth place in the 100-yard freestyle and eighth in the 100-yard IM — cutting his best time by six-and-a-half seconds.
After attending an Olympic qualifying event in April, “where he can watch some of the fastest swimmers in the world compete,” Dembow said, Lattanzi plans to attend a summer sleep-away swim program in California.
Bronson hopes to train Lattanzi to break into the top two of his age group by the time Long Course State rolls around in July.
Andrew Tate, 13, the other Sedona Swim Team representative at State, qualified in two events in his age group — the 1,000- and 1,650-yard freestyle events — but could finish no higher than 17th, with an 11:22.23 in the first event.
For more photos, please see the Wednesday, March 23, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
