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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Skylar Zuleger capped her magical freshman season in the state 4-A swimming championships at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary on Feb. 6.
She turned in a machine-like time of 1:02.26 in the 100 breaststroke. She broke her own school record – again – and finished third. It probably can’t get too cooler than that for a ninth grader.
“(Her swim) was just incredible,” coach Tak Hirata said. “She stuck to her own swim and executed the race perfectly. She had an amazing freshman season. I don’t think there was a key meet that she didn’t improve every time she swam. At her level, that’s just difficult to do. Coach Chad (Zuleger) knows exactly what she needs, and clearly it’s working for them. As decorated as she is in the world of swimming, it’s been fun watching her get excited about high school swimming, enjoy being part of this team and sharing a little bit of her talent with the group. For year-round swimmers like Sky and Zach (Hirata), it’s about representing the school, putting the school’s name on the map and having fun with their friends doing so.”
Zuleger’s magnificent run in 2024-25 included winning the CPC breaststroke to become the first Davie female to win a league title in 12 years, taking second in the CPC in the 50 free and claiming first in the breast in the regional. She’s the No. 1 freshman breaststroker in the state after finishing behind a pair of juniors in Cary. The two girls in front of her had times of 1:00 and 1:01.
“When I finished the race at states, I definitely was surprised with my placement,” Zuleger said. “I knew that I could do it. I just didn’t really know what to expect going into it, considering it’s not just competing in a 13-14 age group – it’s open all the way up to 18 years old. So my expectations definitely weren’t to get third, but I was super happy with it.”
The heartbeat of the Davie boys team, Hirata, competed in two events at the state. The sophomore was 19th in the 100 back and 20th in the 100 butterfly. He dazzled all season en route to his second state appearance (last year he qualified on a relay team). He was the CPC champion in the 200 free for the second time, he was second in the CPC in the 100 back for the second year in a row, and he placed eighth and ninth in the regional in the butterfly and back, respectively.
“For us to have two individual state qualifiers was exciting,” coach Hirata said. “It was a very fast regional and even faster state. We have a young core group of swimmers returning that we have the opportunity to continue to grow and develop, and we’re slowly changing the swim culture around here. They’re starting to recognize that swimming is no longer a seasonal sport and to be competitive they’ll need to put in the time required outside of high school season. Beyond that, this group has shown us that they know the meaning of hard work, respect, humility and gratitude. And to us, that’s just as important as swimming fast, and we are proud of this group for recognizing it. We had a great season with a lot of growth from all of our swimmers and we look forward to them accomplishing some big things in the next couple of years.”