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Skyridge swimmers pose for a photo after winning the title by jumping into the pool after the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Skyridge 4x200 relay swimmers pose for a photo with their first-place medals during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Skyridge swimmers Nate Moir (right) and Wade Ogden celebrate after they finished first and second in the 100-yard breaststroke race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Skyridge swimmers Nate Moir (right) and Wade Ogden pose for a photo with their medals after they finished first and second in the 100-yard breaststroke race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Skyridge swimmers celebrate winning the title by jumping into the pool after the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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American Fork senior Jes Day swims in the 500-yard freestyle race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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American Fork senior Jes Day swims in the 200-yard individual medley race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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American Fork senior Chandler Eyre celebrates after winning the 200-yard freestyle race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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American Fork senior Chandler Eyre competes in the 200-yard freestyle race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Westlake senior Brandyn Blackwood (right) competes in the 100-yard backstroke race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Westlake senior Brandyn Blackwood (center) and other swimmers start the 100-yard backstroke race during the finals of the 2023 6A state boys and girls swim meet at the Richards Building in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

Skyridge junior swimmer Nate Moir has a wide, infectious smile that lights up the entire pool — and it was beaming at full wattage Saturday evening at the 6A state finals at the Richards Building in Provo.

Can you blame him?

He started the day by swimming the second leg of the team’s 200-yard medley relay team that came in first, then came in a solid second place behind talented American Fork senior Jes Day in the 500-yard freestyle.

Then things really ramped up for Moir as he edged Falcon teammate Wade Ogden (also a junior) to win the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 59.57 seconds, then wrapped up the meet by being the third swimmer in Skyridge’s triumphant 400 freestyle relay team.

To cap it all off, he got the thrill of being part of the first Falcon swim team to win a state title as Skyridge tallied 283 points, 52 more than second-place American Fork.

“I’m on top of the world, man,” Moir said with his trademark grin. “I couldn’t be happier. It has been an incredible meet. This whole weekend has just been amazing. Holy cow, I couldn’t be happier.”

Moir didn’t appear to be the favorite in the breaststroke, since he had finished with the fourth-fastest times in Friday’s preliminaries. But Moir and Ogden felt like they could put together a nice finish for the Falcons.

“Finishing first was definitely a surprise,” Moir said. “Wade and I said at the beginning of the season that we could go 1-2, that that would be amazing. We even said that going 3-4 would be awesome. But I’m just so happy that us getting first and second actually happened. I wasn’t sure after prelims but we just went and it was incredible.”

Skyridge head coach Matt Cox explained the Moir is the type of athlete who makes good things happen for his team.

“He’s one of our team leaders,” Cox said. “He is always on the edge of the pool, cheering for everybody. He cares more about the team than he does himself. I think today things finally clicked for him.”

While Moir has the only individual title for the Falcons, many others contributed and avoided mistakes to get the points Skyridge needed to win as a team.

“That was amazing,” Cox said. “We have a history of getting disqualified in the relays and we didn’t have any DQs this week. I owe that all to them and their hard work all year. They’ve come together to put the team first. I’ve been smiling all day. It’s been great.”

Moir took a moment to reflect on the journey that got the Falcons to the pinnacle of their sport.

“Over the season, our team has just grown so much,” Moir said. “Our team community is amazing. We just slowly built up and it’s just incredible to think that we were able to come all this way.”

Other 6A swimmers from Utah Valley were also able to finish atop the podium.

Day got a pair of wins for the Cavemen, one in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:43.30 and another in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:54.25. His American Fork teammate, senior Chandler Eyre, was first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:44.26 while Westlake senior Brandyn Blackwood won the 100-yard backstroke in 51.48 seconds.

In the 6A team competition, Lone Peak ended up fifth with Pleasant Grove getting 10th and Westlake finishing 13th.

Complete details from the 2023 6A swimming competition can be found at http://UHSAA.org.

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