The over-15 swimmers who make up the senior group of the Sedona Race Pace Swim Club completed the short course season with a showing at the Lakeside Aquatic Club 2024 Texas Spring Sectionals in Justin, Tex., which took place from March 7 through March 10. The group is coached by Sean Emery.

“[Sectionals went] really well,” 19-year-old Carlos Lattanzi said. “I got [my] best time in my 500 freestyle, which I hadn’t gained a best time in a few years. So it was nice to finally get a personal record in  that one. It was just a fun trip and I enjoyed racing [the] top athletes in the country. It was a  fun meet and a good last short course meet before we get into this long course season, which I’m looking forward to, and then college in the fall.”

Race Pace This is the second part of a two-part story on the Sedona Race Pace Swim Club.

Lattanzi took sixth place in the 400-yard individual medley, 12th place in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:30.54, representing an improvement of 3.59 seconds, and competed after qualifying in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle and the 200 individual medley.

“[The Individual medley] is an event where it’s all four strokes,” Lattanzi said. “The order is butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and so the 400 [yard] is 100 of each stroke.”

Lattanzi has been swimming competitively for the past 11 years and will be enrolling a t California State University Bakersfield in the fall, a choice he said he made because of the campus and its proximity to his mother’s side of the family.

“My dad used to do laps here [at the Sedona Community Pool] during community time, ” Lattanzi said. “I was swimming with him and one of the lifeguards said, ‘He should try out for the swim team.’ I came to the practice that night and I enjoyed it so much because of how competitive I am. But it’s also a solo sport … I fell in love with the competitive side of it.”

Lucy Spielman showed a time improvement in the girl’s 100-yard butterfly with a seed time of 1:05.90 and a preliminary time of 59.99, while also swimming in the 200-yard butterfly with a preliminary time of 2:11.59 and a finals time of 2:09.32. She competed in the 500-yard freestyle with a finals time of 5:19:50.

“My big goal right now [is] I really want to make a futures cut, which is the step above sectionals in my 200 fly, and then I’d like to go on and swim at the best college that I can long-term,” Spielman said. “I’d love to swim Division I.”

Spielman is already steeling her nerves for those large competitions.

“Swimming is the same no matter what stage you’re swimming on, if you can focus on yourself and your time and your race. It’s definitely something that I still have a lot of work to do on handling my nerves,” Spielman said. “But I try to focus on my breathing and focus on what I can control.”

Leo Wesley, a senior at Sedona Red Rock High School, competed in the 50-yard freestyle, in which he posted a seed time of 21.97 and a preliminary time of 22.02, and came in fifth place in the 100-yard butterfly with a seed time of 53.78 and a finals time of 54:12. In the 100-yard freestyle he picked up a seed and had a finals time of 47.87.

“I’m just enjoying my senior year and swimming,” Wesley said. “I would like to swim in college. I’m going next week for an official visit for a Division II school in Arkansas. I have family out there, so I saw the college and I talked to the coach.”

Wesley added that while he was focused on his performance at sectionals for months leading up to the meet, he came down with the flu a few weeks ahead of the competition in Texas.

“Nothing I can do about it other than just get back to work as soon as I can,” Wesley said. “ It’s a little frustrating, but I was fine with [my performance] given the circumstances. I think that was probably the best it could have gone with with the circumstances. I trust the process, which also takes away from my nerves. If I trust myself that I did everything that I can, I feel better, right before my race. I feel more confident in myself.”

Prior to sectionals, the 15-and-over group of Race Pace Club members competed at the Short Course Senior State meet between Feb. 29 and March 3 at the Skyline Pool in Mesa. Kirk Bryce came in ninth place in the 200- yard butterfly with a 2.49-second improvement and 11th place in the 400- yard individual medley with an improvement on his personal best of 2.96 seconds.

Sarina McCullough placed 15th in the 100- yard butterfly, improving by 0.49 seconds, and competed in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200 individual medley.

Colin Ledbetter competed in the 500-yard freestyle, improving by 3.72 seconds.

15-year-old Zinnia Mykkanen competed in her first state meet in the 500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle, having started swimming competitively 18 months ago.

“I’ve pushed myself because I’m really new,” Mykkanen said. “I have high expectations of myself because my family were competitive swimmers. I’ve excelled fast so I have high expectations, but right now making it to sectionals is my goal.”