Alaia Sloan entered the finals with a humble approach.

Sloan earned the top seed in both the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke for the finals at the 3A state swimming and diving championships and recognized that her seeding meant nothing. Sloan still had to race both events to win first. 

Well, she did.

The Thunder placed third overall with 304 points as Sloan clocked 55.59 seconds in the 100 fly to secure the crown and took first in the 100 backstroke in 57.12 at Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center on Feb. 14.

“All glory to God for the ability to swim this well, and I’m so proud of what I was able to accomplish,” Sloan said. “I feel like I put in a lot of hard work, and it finally showed.” 

Sloan placed second in both events at state last season and returned for her sophomore campaign with fervor. The Thunder swimmer earned 29 first-place finishes this season — 31 including Saturday’s wins — and owned all of Discovery Canyon’s fastest individual times. 

Sloan entered the 100 fly finals with a seed time of 56.05, which was two seconds quicker than second place. For the backstroke, her time of 57.82 was 0.84 better than second. She dominated both races and won by 2.6 seconds and 0.79, respectively. 

“I knew I had a lot of good competitors I was going against,” Sloan said. “I’m honored to have won against them, but they were very good. On the backstroke, I felt girls coming up next to me, so I knew I had to push it.” 

Sloan said she was grateful for her state success and more so thankful for the seniors who helped push her this season. After the competition, several Thunder swimmers had red eyes that had nothing to do with the pool’s water.

Senior Siri Rydland, who finished second on the team with 35 points behind Sloan’s 40, said she loved the dynamic of the team and will miss the bonding. 

“They’ve been with me for the past four years, and this has been a welcoming and loving team,” Rydland said. “We all lift each other up and work well under pressure and always find the good in everything.” 

Rydland placed fifth in the 50 free at 25.47 and sixth in the 100 free at 56.11. When Rydland touched the wall in the 400 freestyle relay, the meet’s final event, in which the Thunder placed third at 3:45.59, the emotions began to bubble.

The pride Rydland felt helping the Thunder capture the school’s first swimming and diving championship in 2025 and the years of building Discovery Canyon into a formidable team finally surfaced. 

As Rydland’s coaches and teammates congratulated her after her final individual race, she reflected on the Thunder’s progress from her first year to her senior season.

“It’s gratifying to see where we’ve come,” Rydland said. “These girls put in a whole lot of work to get to where they are and they all dropped a crazy amount of time to get to where they are right now. It’s amazing to see the blood, sweat and tears that they’ve put in pay off.”