Carlos Lattanzi, 14, of Sedona, won gold medals for the 800-meter freestyle relay and 400-meter medley relay team at the Arizona Long Course USA swimming state championships in Oro Valley.

 Lattanzi, who swims for Swim Neptune in Phoenix, trains part-time with coach Dan Morse of the Sedona Swordfish. He also took two silver medals for the 400-meter individual medley and the 400-meter freestyle as well as a bronze medal for the 200-meter breaststroke. The last race of the entire meet proved to be a nail-biter as Lattanzi missed bronze by three-100ths of a second despite an effort on his last 50 meters of his 200-meter individual medley to catch his competitor in the freestyle leg. 

Lattanzi regularly trains high altitude conditioning in Flagstaff at NAU Aquatics with his father, Rick Dembow, which contributes to the teen’s ability to overpower his opponents in the final laps of his races. 

“Carlos has always been known to muscle out a tight race which was apparent in his 400 IM where he was in seventh place at the half yet managed to clinch a silver medal after pouring it on with his breaststroke and ‘turboing’ it with his freestyle ending with a personal best long course time of 4:55.78,” Dembow stated in a press release. “Carlos is a very strong swimmer with big lungs and his ability to amp it up in the later stages of his races as his competitors began to fade is one of his biggest strengths and signature. 

This year’s meet turned out to hold a few exciting treats as Lattanzi was able to compete in relays for the first time winning gold. His previous team was so small they never had enough swimmers to have a relay team for him to compete on. 

Additionally, his teammate, 14-year-old Keaton Jones, made an Olympic trial qualifying time in the 200 backstroke and Lattanzi ended tied for third in the 13-14 year old boys high point with 92.5 points. Lattanzi was also able to garner his 6th sectional qualifying time with a 1:13.42 in the 100-meter breaststroke. 

Lattanzi now looks forward to the beginning of the USA swimming short course season where his sights are on breaking another state record in the 400 IM as well as swimming for the Sedona Red Rock High School swim team in its Division 3 meets when he’s not competing in USA swim meets.