High school swimming: Park City returns to glory, sweeps 4A state championships

Published: Feb 8, 2025, 11:47 p.m. MST

Park City women's and men's swimming teams pose with their championship trophies after the UHSAA 4A State Swim Meet held at the Richards Building Pool in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. Isaac Hale, Deseret News

Carson Hilton has covered high school sports in Utah for the Deseret News since 2022.

Park City was a dominant swimming program between 2014 and 2018, as its girls team won five consecutive state championships and its boys team four.

The Miners haven’t been able to get back to the top on either side since then, but that changed in a big way Saturday.

The Miners certainly had their fair share of challenges in Saturday’s 4A state meet, with the boys in a tight race against Murray and the girls overcoming an early disqualification, but Park City overcame all its tests and once again claimed both the boys and girls state championship trophies.

“Today was a roller coaster,” said Park City head coach Gadi Shamah. “It was ups and downs, wins and losses and both the boys and girls swam amazing. Absolutely amazing.”

Disaster struck early for Park City’s girls as they was disqualified in the first event of the day, the 200 medley relay, due to an illegal turn. The disqualification left the Miners distraught and demoralized, but they picked themselves up and climbed back into the top of the team rankings, finding separation in the relays.

Park City finished first in both the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.

“There was definitely some upset kids and coaches,” said Shamah. “The girls pulled it together, they kept their calm and they pulled away like we thought they would. That was great to see and it’s a great group of kids. I can’t take the credit that the kids have been working so hard.”

Timpanogos’ Raiden Harris and Payson’s Avery Bulkley were standout swimmers in the 4A meet and shared the girls swimmer of the year award.

Harris set 4A state records in both the 50 and 100 freestyle in Friday’s preliminaries, and she took home the individual title in both categories.

Harris is a senior and is committed to swim for Wyoming.

“It’s always great to go home with two golds,” said Harris. “It’s really surreal. It’s great competition and it’s crazy how much I’ve grown. It’s an awesome feeling.”

Bulkley had arguably the best individual performance of the meet in the 500 freestyle. She set a new 4A record in the preliminaries with a 5:01.17 finish, then she blew her old record out of the water in Saturday’s meet with a 4:58.62 time.

It’s a new 4A state record, the third-best time in state history and only the sixth ever sub-5 minute time in state history.

“I just really wanted to go under five,” Bulkley said. “I practice twice a day. It’s just putting in the work and this is when the work pays off. The clock doesn’t scare me that much, but I know I put in the work, so whatever happens I know I’ve worked for it.”

The boys title race was about as close as it gets, with Park City taking the win with only a six point margin. The Miners got a huge boost from Keegan Elgie, who took first in the 200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay.

Elgie was also rewarded with the boys swimmer of the year award.

“It’s been a long journey,” Elgie said. “I’ve loved swimming, and so having the honor to get (swimmer of the year) really made the meet that much better. Being here was great, and I’m glad to have done it with my teammates.”

With only the 400 freestyle relay remaining, Murray led Park City 230-224. Park City knew if it took first like it did in the preliminaries, then Murray needed to get at least second to stay with the Miners.

“It was stressful,” Elgie said. “We just knew we had to play it super safe while still getting the win.”

The Miners took care of business with a dominant 3:14.78 finish, nearly six full seconds ahead of second place. Murray started the relay strong but lost steam and fell to fifth, which secured the Miners’ first boys state championship since 2017.

“All the coaches got together and we were we were scoring it down to the final points,” Shamah said. “We knew it was going to be extremely close and Murray put up a great fight. We’re really happy that Murray’s doing so well and our boys just pulled it together at the end. It was a great, great meet.”