The Fountain Hills High School swim team starts its fifth season in program history tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 1. The Falcons will face BASIS Phoenix and Paradise Honors at the Melrose Paradise Recreation Club at 5 p.m.

The Falcons lost six seniors to graduation and have a slightly smaller roster this year. The Falcons went down from 18 to 13 swimmers, but they gained four freshmen, a new junior and have an assistant coach for the first time.

Junior Keian Evans moved to Fountain Hills last December and made a bold statement when he arrived at preseason practices. He told the rest of the Falcons that his goal is to break every school record.

“I just really enjoy everybody supporting me even though I’m saying I’m going to try to take every single school record,” Evans said. “It seems very very cocky, and it seems like a very arrogant thing to say, but I’m happy they’re still pushing me through.”

As a sophomore at Gila Ridge High School, Evans was the region champion in 100 butterfly, and he placed 18th in that event at state. He also qualified for the 100 breaststroke state event and placed 26th.

The Falcons set five new school records last year, and senior Gunnar Wise set the school records in 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley. Wise will look to keep his records against Evans and make state competition for the second year in a row, but Wise is not the only senior trying to finish strong.

Senior Dylan Horsfall ran track last spring and is excited for his senior season. Alexis Sommerschield will also be swimming in her final year with Fountain Hills, and Space Kingphakorn and Brendan Davies are looking to advance as upperclassmen this year.

“I know the team is a little bit smaller, but I think we’ll do great,” Horsfall said. “I’m hoping for fast times for myself because I’m in the best shape so far of all four years.”

The Falcons have been practicing for months to prepare for the season. According to head coach Patti Schultz, the Falcons had a goal-setting practice three weeks before the season where each swimmer picked the events they want to focus on. The Falcons set pace markers, so after each race they will compare their times to their projections.

Schultz did say the Falcons will not be swimming their best events at the first meet tomorrow. She wants to challenge her swimmers and build a baseline for each of them.

Schultz also changed her normal schedule structure for the season. The Falcons usually had two state qualifying meets at the beginning of the season, and two qualifying events at the end, but this year the Falcons will have three state qualifying chances in October, before the state meet which takes place the first weekend in November.

“We have three invites in a row right before state,” Schultz said. “Usually, I have two in September and two in October, but I wanted to push it, so we get the most opportunity at the best part of training at the end of the season.”

The state qualifying meets will put the Falcons in unfamiliar places with lots of competition. The Falcons will swim in the Fast Times in Cool Pines Invitational first, and the meet takes place at the Northern Arizona University campus in Flagstaff. Later in October, the Falcons will swim in the Forktober Fest Invitational at the Arizona State University swim facilities.

“I went to [the University of Arizona] my junior year,” Horsfall said. “That was so much fun. My freshman year I was scared to go, but I’m excited to go now to ASU and NAU.”

Schultz will have help from a parent this year getting the Falcons ready for meets and state competition. Freshman Natalie Owers is a club swimmer and comes from a swimming family, and her mother will help as Schultz’s assistant coach.

Schultz added that her swimmers’ parents are usually very supportive. The Falcons did a “Swimathon” before the season, where people pledged a donation for every lap a Falcon swam during a 20-minute period. Schultz had several parents volunteer to track the laps swam and the next day, on August 25, the Falcons had a team dinner where families were invited.

The Falcon swimmers will be attending the away football game this Friday at Scottsdale Christian Academy, and the pom team is expected to go cheer at one of the swim meets later in the season. According to Schultz, the idea came from wrestling coach Luke Salzman as a way to support all athletic programs.

After the first meet, the Falcons have two weeks until they face Mountain Point on Thursday, Sept. 15. Then they will have two days before going to NAU on Saturday, Sept. 17, for their first chance to qualify for state competition.