The short course season for the Sedona Race Pace Swim Club has wrapped up with its members picking up several accolades. The swimmers are under the age of 14 and most recently competed from March 7 through 10 in Oro Valley north of Tucson.

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

“Race Pace Club AZ is a year round swim team in the Verde Valley, Camp Verde and Sedona, Arizona serving youth ages 5 to 18, collegiate swimmers, masters swimmers and pre-team novice swimmers,” the club’s website states.

Amira McCullough took first place in the 50-meter backstroke with a time improvement of 0.17 second and Juni Spielman came in sixth place in the same event. Kaylee McLean saw time improvements of 3.6 seconds in the 50-meter backstroke and 0.12 in the 50-meter butterfly, and newcomer Holly Swaninger had a time improvement of 3.66 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle.

“I’ve been swimming for about four, five years maybe, and I just won state championships,” 11-year-old McCullough said. “I practice five times a week, sometimes six [on] Saturday mornings. I’ve never really tried any other sports. And I think I’m gonna keep [swimming] for a lot of my life. I don’t really [remember] how I started, but it’s always been a part of my life … My favorite strokes are backstroke and fly.”

McCullough added that her goal is to advance further into the national scene and that her “good underwater kick which helps me in most of my strokes” is one of the major tools in her arsenal. Spielman has been swimming for the last seven years and this was her second time competing at a state event.

“The last state, I only made one event, and this time I made like six,” Spielman said. “It was really exciting to make a bunch of events and be able to swim for multiple days, because last time I only got to swim once. This time I placed in top 10 in two events and top 20 in most of my events.”

She said that she is still adjusting to the added pressure of competing in more events on a larger stage and that extending the amount of time that she warms up prior to competing helps with that process.

“I really want to swim in college,” Spielman said. “Because I want to continue and to keep loving it. I hope to stay consistent and to qualify for our next state championship in July.”

A newcomer to the club, Swaninger is a recent transfer from Gilbert, where she competed on two club teams.

“Both of those teams are really big compared to our group, because we’re more of a smalltown group,” Swaninger said.

“I like it better, because you can connect with everyone here. On a big team you don’t get as good coaching. Because the coaches[have] so many people to watch. On a smaller team, it’s easier for the coaches to see what you need to do better … But it’s a lot of fun. Because you get to connect more with people.” Swaninger added that her goal is to continue swimming for a long-time to come and to make “my teammates and my coaches proud.”

“The girls also competed in four relays, with the sum total of their best times being used collectively as the entry time for the races,” Race Pace Club coach Jodi Thornton said. “The girls bettered each of the times significantly, really showing the effect of the team spirit we strive to build at Race Pace Club.”

In the 200 medley relay, the team improved its performance by 2.24 seconds, with McCullough swimming the backstroke, Spielman swimming the breaststroke, McLean swimming the butterfly and Swaninger swimming freestyle.

The club also competed in the 400-meter freestyle relay for the first time and had a time improvement of 1.52 seconds in the 200- meter freestyle relay.

Earlier in the year, the team competed on Feb. 24 and 25 at the Arizona Short Course Regional Championships in Chandler. Zariah McCullough represented the under-10 girls and placed 12th in the 50-meter butterfly, and Sage Mykkanen represented the 13- to 14-year-old girls and saw time improvements in the 100- meter and 500-meter butterfly.