The girls' team last won state 2018. And this is the first championship for the boys since 2017.
Favored to win, the girls earned 288 points, beating Desert Hills High School by more than 60 points. That hard-fought victory came with challenges.
The Park City girls were disqualified in the first race, the 200 medley relay, for an illegal turn. Head Coach Gadi Shamah said the loss didn’t shake the girls who won the next two relays.
“That DQ in the beginning was very rough. It just sets kind of an emotional tone going into the meet,” he said. “Then we had some conversations about pulling our best wins off, and they did and it really goes to show their resilience.”
The Park City boys won with 264 points, edging out Murray High School by just six points.
It was redemption for Park City after the boys fell to Murray in the Region X meet.
The state title was riding on the final event: the 400 free relay. Murray was leading by six points. Park City needed to clock the fastest relay to secure the 4A state title.
Park City senior Keegan Elgie said the team wanted to break its school record but decided not to risk disqualification with a championship on the line.
“Our goal was to hopefully not tie, and we needed to take the win. So it was stressful, but we all stepped up,” he said.
Short of the record, but six seconds ahead of the others, Park City brought home another state championship. Murray finished fifth.
The boys did break one record Saturday, swimming the fastest 200 free relay in the school’s history.
Elgie was named 4A Swimmer of the Year, an honor Shamah says is well deserved.
"He works really hard, he made it to junior nationals this year. He's still looking at D1 schools to pick him up, and hopefully he can swim in college,” he said.
Named 4A Men’s Team Coach of the Year, Shamah says it’s thanks to community support and great teamwork.
