VOC freshman wins 2 events at Arizona state swim championship
Amira McCullough, a 14-year-old Village of Oak Creek resident, is a state champion swimmer.
The Sedona Red Rock High School freshman and member of the Flagstaff Snow Sharks Swim Team, finished first in the 50-yard and 100-yard backstroke and second in the 200- yard backstroke at the Arizona Swimming, Inc. Short Course Age Group State Championship in Oro Valley from March 5 to 8. She posted times of 26.33 in the 50, a new personal best, 57.38 in the 100, and 2:06.22 in the 200.
“I first started swimming around 8 years old. My grandma, [Peggy McCullough], first got my siblings into it, and my older sister, [Sarina McCullough], did it,” McCullough said. “So then me and my younger sister just followed along. We just kind of all got into the swimming because of her, because my grandma … and it turned into more than just swimming. We got really into it, found a good team and kind of just bonded with the sport in general.”
“She comes across as a little shy at first but underneath that shyness is really this warrior-athlete mentality that wants to train really hard, work really hard and then race really hard and race as fast as she can against these girls,” head coach Jeff Leid said. “She’s just dedicated with all the things that I think you want to see in somebody who’s 14 years old, and you just try to develop those so that they become lifetime skills. … One of the things that she’s really good at is underwater dolphin kicking, and she uses that as a weapon when she races. She literally just kicks away from girls off the wall. It’s pretty cool to watch.”
McCullough made the switch from the Sedona Race Pace Swim Club in August following the retirement of the club’s coach Sean Emery. She has been making the trek up to Flagstaff three times a week to train with Leid and the Snow Sharks, with Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D., serving as an assistant coach for the team and training her three times a week in Sedona.
The competition is through USA Swimming, meaning the field is drawn from the best swimmers in the state regardless of school size.
“Amira has all the talent in the world, but what makes her skill set relatively unique is that not only when the big meet hits and the big lights are on, she shows up and she shows up well, but it goes well beyond those moments,” Swaninger said. “She’s one of the toughest swimmers that I have been around in my entire career as a swimmer, and I swam with Olympic medalists. In that every single day, the level of consistent work that she puts into practice is probably her greatest strength. She focuses on all of the little things that make her great, both in and out of the pool. So she pays really special attention to her nutrition, her sleep.”
Next on her competition schedule is the sectionals competition taking place Thursday, March 26, through Sunday, March 29, in Carmel, Indiana, which is a milestone Swaninger said could open the door to larger stages.
She will swim the backstroke events as well as the 100- and 200-yard butterfly at the meet.
“When you have a swimmer who qualifies for sectionals, and you have somebody like Amira who’s not only talented but puts in the real work, the likely next step is junior and senior nationals,” Swaninger said. “When you get to junior and senior nationals, you are swimming with and against the best age-group swimmers in the entire country. So it’s exciting to see someone from a small town like Sedona with her trajectory and that really bodes well for that path.”
McCullough said she is currently just 0.3 seconds off the qualifying cut in the 100-yard backstroke for the Futures competition and within a second in the 200, making it a realistic near-term target.
“I’m just trying to have fun at this meet,” she said. “I’m very happy to be at my new team, and I’m very happy at where I am, so I’m just trying to enjoy and not put that much pressure on myself.”
Currently, five Sedona students are on the Snow Sharks who are more focused on the competitive side of swimming, and Swaninger said they are wanting to grow the team.
Another Sedona local who competed with the team at the state meet was Kaylee McLean.
“She has made some massive progress this year with her times … she’s a specialist in the breaststroke events,” Leid said. “Like Amira, she likes to train hard and get out there and race.”
