PROVO — When Springville's boys swim team found itself smack dab in the middle of a state meet that had just about everything, the Red Devils never lost their composure.
There were plenty of opportunities for Springville to get rattled or become distracted, what with four state records falling (three amazingly at the hands of a single swimmer, Mountain Crest's Jake Taylor), two 4A records falling and several other wild things going on around the Red Devils.
But to their immense credit, they never let any of that happen.
With chaos going on around them, the Red Devils kept their cool, kept swimming fast and kept making sure that nobody was going to beat them.
That proved to be a winning formula for Springville, which beat Snow Canyon, 293.5-275, en route to back-to-back 4A boys championships Saturday evening before a sold-out crowd at BYU.
Murray, which took a tiny lead into the meet, finished third with 263 points.
"They plugged away and kept their concentration," Springville coach Amyee Hargett said of her swimmers. "They knew what they had to do. They knew there were going to be amazing swims at this meet, (but) they just did everything to earn all the points they could to win us a title."
Snow Canyon, led by senior Joe Beutler, swam fast and could've made a run at Springville, but the Red Devils came up with big swims throughout to make sure that never happened.
Channing Miller (100 free) and Calvin Clark (500 free) netted a pair of second-place finishes on Saturday for Springville, and the Red Devils netted wins in the 200 free and 400 free relays.
While Springville successfully defending its state title was obviously a major story line this weekend, arguably the thing that people will remember about this state meet for years to come is the performance of Taylor.
After breaking a 30-year-old state record in the 200 IM on Friday, he followed that up by setting state records in the 100 back (49.87) and in the 100 free (45.56) to complete one of the greatest individual performances in state history.
"It's a gift of God that I've been able to go that fast," said Taylor, who beat out Beutler for 4A Swimmer of the Meet honors. "I'm just real thankful that I've been able to swim and to be able to swim well."
E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com