Jimmy Van Wickler is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arcadia High School for AZPreps365.com

The final meet of the season ends in success for the Arcadia Titans as they topped Greenway on Thursday at El Dorado Pool.

It was a good meet betwee two Division II programs as Arcadia's Senior Night, which means as much as they care about swimming their best and doing their best for the team, they are also celebrating their senior swimmers.

The Titans were still able to get the better of their opponent. 

"I think it was more like a fun meet,” said head coach Ana Kilibarda. “I feel it is more of a team bonding thing really than anything else because they know what to do.” 

The Titans were able to beat the Demons on points for the boys and the girls. The boys teams had a greater distance in points with the Titans boys team winning, 118-40. The girls meet was a lot closer as Arcadia won, 94-81 

This meet had a lot of exhibition heats, which were mainly full of Arcadia swimmers and at one point in the meet they had eight Titans in the pool at the same time. The atmosphere of the meet was bright with swimmers cheering for their teammates and laughing with their friends as they enjoyed their last home meet together. 

“I was kinda put on a whole bunch of exhibitions so that kinda just means that I am not competing for points but I am still in the competition,” said Tristyn Abbott who is a senior and a captain for the Titans. “I’ve kinda just been taking that time to go and support my teammates, see how they are doing, talk to them, tell them they're doing great, and how I am excited to see them compete next year.”

Some seniors highlighted the meet with Ryan Mallender getting a time of 53:08 seconds on his 100-yard freestyle race while Aidan McClure swam the 500-yard freestyle and got a time of five minutes and 22:97 seconds. The team overall was able to shine in its final home meet of the season but this meet was more than just about getting the most points. 

With it being Senior Night, it will be the last time the full team will be able to cheer together, laugh together, and have fun together.

After the meet, the team brought up the seniors and to celebrate for their final home meet with banners with the seniors name and picture on them as they experience their final home meet of their Titans journey. 

“This season has been really fun because this is like my last hurrah,” said McClure. “It is also just nice because me and a bunch of other people are all seniors at the same time so we have been swimming with each other for the past four years so it’s just fun to see the culmination of all those years of hard work.”