Grace Del Pizzo is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Desert Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com

Desert Mountain High School girls’ swim team took home the AIA Division II State Championship for the third consecutive year on Nov. 5, continuing its run of impressive performances.

Its continued success is in major part due to junior Gabbie Primiano, who earned Women's Division II Swimmer of the Year honors at the state championship.

Primiano came in first in both the 200 IM (2 minutes, 5.69 seconds) and 100 breast (1:04.43), and won both of the relays she participated in, the 200 medley and the 400 free.

“It was really awesome,” Primiano said of the team’s third straight state title. “Especially having the girls by my side. Just to see how happy everyone was, and to see everything just come together as a team was really amazing.”

Primiano swam recreationally in elementary school, but “ended up hating it” and took a six-year break. However, watching the 2016 Rio Olympics drove her to return to the sport.

“Seeing [Michael] Phelps retire from his career… I was like, ‘wow, that's really cool,’” Primiano said. “So ever since then, I've been swimming club at Lifetime, and then freshman year, I started at [Desert Mountain].” 

Primiano had already made a name for herself before beginning at Desert Mountain, according to head coach Crystal Strimple.

“I knew of Gabbie because of club swimming. I didn't know her personally, I knew the name,” Strimple said. “And I knew the name associated with her times, and I knew that she was good.”

Assistant coach Chris Pospisil added, “She wasn't the one goofing off or skipping sets or taking 20 minutes to get into the pool. She was there to get her work done. And obviously, by her results, it paid off.”

According to Primiano, it’s important for her to prepare for a meet both physically and mentally.

“Usually I do my normal warm up… and then right when I go behind the blocks, I always stretch,” Primiano said. “I'm kind of an over-thinker, so no matter how my training is going, I'm always trying to stay positive. And I always try to remind myself that I am prepared, because if I don't, then I feel like everything goes downhill.”

The level of work Primiano puts in doesn’t go unnoticed, least of all by her coaches.

“I think Gabbie… does enough of her training to make her functionally sound and then they step up the level of training and she rises to that level,” Strimple said. “So she works really hard. She's a beast. She's awesome. She always comes back to giving 110%. She goes really above and beyond what she needs to do.”

In both relays, Primiano was Desert Mountain’s oldest swimmer. Although she’s only a junior, her coaches say she rose to the challenge.

“[Gabbie] was always very encouraging, very kind to the teammates,” Pospisil said. “Even though I think on most of those relays, she's the only kid from her club, she's swimming with three girls who swim for different clubs. She doesn't practice with them every day.” 

Strimple added, “At one point, she was the freshman on those relays. So she's had an opportunity the two years prior to watch those other seniors guide her through that leadership… I think her experience being on those relays since she was a freshman molds how she wants to behave with her own group and guide them through this. And she's done a really nice job with that.”

In terms of intangibles, Primiano’s coaches say she has them in spades.

“She's never shied away from giving her input if I ask her,” Strimple said. “And at the same time, she's quick to say, ‘Whatever you need me to do, I will do’... I think the overall emphasis of the team, what I really want the kids to understand and grasp, is that if you're willing to put your ego aside, then you have these opportunities that unfold before you… it says a lot about who Gabbie is as a person. She's definitely not a pushover, but she's a team player through and through.” 

Pospisil said Primiano is “tough.” 

“Toughness is… kind of hard to gauge in swimming, because it's a middle point between being technically sound and strong,” Pospisil said. “She has both of those things. Her build is really good, and her strokes are really nice. When she puts them together, she's pretty hard to beat.”

Outside of herself, Primiano attributes her success to her parents and her club coach, who she says are, “always looking for ways to help [her], whether it’s in the pool, or at school, or at home.”

Despite her numerous accolades, Primiano has another year of high school left. Her coaches have high hopes for her senior year.

“I want her to walk into her senior year confident and knowing… that she has the support of all of us behind her,” Strimple said. “She's just blossomed as an athlete, and she'll continue to do so… I think getting swimmer of the year this year was a surprise, and it was really well deserved and very cool to have her get that accomplishment. Hopefully she'll get it again next year.”

Pospisil added, “Being a senior does come with some responsibility in itself. And I'm excited to see her step into that and make it her team and see what she does with it.”

Primiano said her teammates and the proof of improvement make all the early mornings and hard work worth it.

“When you have your teammates behind the box encouraging you, and you also see how amazing they're doing, it motivates you so much more than if you were just doing it by yourself,” Primiano said. “Because it feels like you're doing it for someone else too. Looking up at that time on the scoreboard and seeing that after however long it's been, you are getting better every day, it really pays off.”