Keian Evans became the first Falcon ever to medal at the state swim meet last Saturday, Nov. 5. The Fountain Hills High School junior won second place in the 100 meter butterfly (52.65), and the Falcons placed in the top 10 in three other events en route to a 10th place finish for the boys out of 33 teams.

The Falcons have sent at least one individual to state each year since the program started five years ago. Evans set a personal and school record in his butterfly race by over two seconds, and first, second and third place were only separated by 0.7 seconds in the race.

Evans also set a new PR and school record with his fifth-place finish in the 200 individual medley (2:01.03), and the boys 200 medley relay team took 6th overall. The team started with junior Brendan Davies, before senior Gunnar Wise and Evans followed. Senior Space Kingphakorn finished in the anchor position (1:47.64).

The relay team set a new school record and dropped 2.5 seconds off their seed time from the preliminaries on Friday, Nov. 4. The 200 freestyle boys relay team set a new school record and took 12th (1:36.15) with the same relay order.

Wise broke his own school record in the 100 breaststroke with a new PR (1:03.73) and took sixth in the state. The senior also finished just off his best time but placed seventh in the 200 freestyle (1:51.65).

“The swimmers showed up ready to execute and perform,” Falcons coach Patti Schultze said. “The boys scored a total of 97 points in the meet with four swimmers. That is impressive.”

Freshman Natalie Owers finished just outside the preliminary cut on Friday for 100 backstroke, but still set a PR by two seconds (1:07.91). She did qualify in 200 free and placed 16th in the state (2:11.37).

“She swam so well and handled the pressures of a large meet with ease,” Schultz said. “Excited to see how the next three years turn out for her. I’m beyond proud of all of them. They started strong, finished strong and proved we are Falcon Strong.”