In the swim to make Sedona history Sunday, July 17, at the Long Course Age Group State championships, the experience of Zoe Porteous held sway over all.

“It was groundbreaking,” said Sean Emery, her head coach, after Porteous became the first local swimmer in nearly a decade to qualify for Western Zone Sectionals — the final step before Junior Nationals. “That’s pretty much getting ready for college scholarships.”

With her 2:53.01 in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Oro Valley Aquatic Center, Porteous. 14, finished sixth in her age group, qualifying for the Far Western national championships as well.

The Verde Valley High Performance club swimmer has good company: Her younger sister, Renae, made it to Far Westerns in April in the 100-yard breaststroke before aging up to the 11- and 12-year-old age group, where her highest finish July 17 was 13th.

“It actually floored me,” Emery said. “Both looked pretty bad during warmups.

“But in the finals, they both surprised me.”

After falling short of joining her sister at the Pleasanton, Calif., meet during short course season, Zoe Porteous re-doubled her summer practice time commitments to 12 hours every week.

“She made the most benefit out of the stuff we did this summer and trained the most consistently out of all the swimmers,” Emery said. “She didn’t perform as well as she would’ve liked to during school time, so she decided that if she was really going to continue swimming, she was going to really commit.

“That’s a good sign. She trains fast, she’ll swim fast.”

Following a sub-37-second finish in the 50-meter breaststroke, Renae Porteous, 11, will try to keep pace with her sister when Verde Valley High Performance resumes competition in September.

“Renae had a lot of trouble in the beginning [of summer],” Emery said. “A big transition difficulty.

“But she had a huge breakthrough the final three weeks, when she trained for the meet.”

Thanks in part to her mastery of underwater dolphin kicking — basically a double leg-kick, Emery said — she was still able to drop nearly four seconds in the breaststroke.

“She went from 40 to 38.5 [seconds] at regionals, which qualified her for State,” he said. “In the morning, she swam a 37 flat before she came back for the finals and went 36.7.”

The only other Sedona swimmer to crack the top 10 at State was 13-year-old Andrew Tate, of the Sedona Swim Team, who was 10th in the 800-meter freestyle.

“Incredibly proud of how far he has come,” said his head coach, A. Jay Bronson, who saw another Swordfish swimmer, Carlos Lattanzi, finish 16th. “We are hopeful that Andrew and Carlos make Zone times by the end of next season.”

Lattanzi, 11, swam the 400-meter individual medley in 6:38.22 and plans to compete in five events with the Swordfish at their final meet of the summer season Saturday, July 23 — the Verde Valley Invitational.

“If I was 12, I wouldn’t be happy, but it was the beginning of my year, and I had just aged up,” Lattanzi added after finishing the 400-meter individual medley in 6:38.22. “My goal is to drop as much time as I can [and] see if I can beat my best times.”

The Swordfish will compete against the host Cottonwood Clippers and three other club teams beginning at 8 a.m. at the Cottonwood Outdoor Pool.

For Sedona swimmers’ best State finishes and times, please see the Friday, July 22, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.