UA swimmers Andrea Boritzke, left, and Caitlin Iversen get a big hug from Becky Bell at the Jim Click Hall of Champions in 2008 after winning the program's first NCAA national championship.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star 2008

The talent and depth needed to win an NCAA swimming championship is, as Arizona coach Frank Busch said in 2008, “off the hook.”

There are 13 individual events, three diving events and five relays. To become a national champion, a team must hope to score at least 450 points.

Nobody just gets lucky.

When Arizona won the 2008 women’s national title, the Wildcats became the first team in history to win all five relay events. That’s 40 points per event, or 200 points.

“When I think of winning all five of those relays, it’s just mind-boggling,” Busch says now. “Nothing can go wrong. Nobody can have an off night. Beyond that, the competition is so difficult that winning all five just doesn’t seem possible.”

But in March 2008 in Columbus, Ohio, Arizona’s five relay teams won ’em all. The Wildcats scored 484 points to defeat defending national champion Auburn by 136 points. The one word that fit the occasion: Historic.

“Deep down,” Busch said that night. “I always felt we’d win one. History moves on to other competitions, but our names will always be down as champions.”

Here’s how it went:

400 freestyle relay: Lacey Nymeyer, Anna Turner, Lara Jackson and Taylor Baughman finished first.

400 medley relay: Annie Chandler, Hailey DeGoila, Ana Agy and Nymeyer finished first.

200 freestyle relay: Nymeyer, Turner, Jackson and Baughman finished first.

200 medley relay: DeGoila, Chandler, Jackson and Turner finished first.

800 freestyle relay: Justine Schluntz, Leone Vorster, Nymeyer and Baughman finished first.

Arizona's Lara Jackson takes her mark with the other swimmers as she prepares to race in the 100 freestyle during a multi-team meet at Hillenbrand Aquatic Center in 2008.

That was 200 of the 484 points Arizona scored. The remaining 284 came in bunches: Nymeyer won the 50 free and finished second in the 200 free. Jackson won the 50 free. DeGoila finished second in the 200 back and third in the 100 fly.

The Wildcats were so deep that swimmers named Ana, Annie, Anna and Andrea combined to score 87 points. Nymeyer alone scored 52.

Nymeyer, a senior from Mountain View High School, the top female swimmer in Tucson history, was overjoyed. A year earlier, the Wildcats finished No. 2 at the NCAAs — they led by 32 points entering the final of three days of competition — and the hurt lingered.

“Being a senior, seeing the years leading up to this, seeing the steps we’ve made, it’s so special,” she told me. “I couldn’t stop crying. We couldn’t stop hugging people. It was by far the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Busch, whose team was ranked No. 4 entering the NCAA finals, had coached the UA women’s teams to 17 consecutive top-10 finishes. The Wildcats finished No. 2 in 2007, 2000 and 1998. They finished No. 3 in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

“Over the years when I watch championship teams go to the podium, I think, ‘What would it be like?’” he said.

Now he knows. (A week later, Busch coached the UA men’s swimming team the NCAA championship).

At the start of the 2009 season, the UA swimming media guide published memoirs of the those returning from the women’s ‘08 team.

Wrote Ana Agy, of Park City, Utah: “I will never forget winning Arizona’s first swimming and diving championship, at Ohio State. Thinking about how we sang ‘Bear Down’ before we received our trophy still gives me chills today.”

Wrote Annie Chandler of San Antonio, Texas: “Watching our girls dominate in the 800 free relay from Lane 8 is frozen in my mind. It was utter chaos in the bleachers after Coach Busch told us we had something special going on. Jessica Embick started crying, she was so ecstatic as Baughman touched the wall to establish a new NCAA record in an event we were seeded 8th in. The shock and joy seen on my teammates and coaches’ faces is a memory that will never fade.”

UA swimming coach Frank Busch holds his seven-week-old granddaughter, Tori Busch, as he introduces 2008 Olympic swimmers Matt Grevers and former UA All-American Lacey Nymeyer in 2008.

Wrote Hailey DeGoila of South Africa: “I knew I was going to Arizona when we went to Coach Busch’s house on my recruiting trip. That’s when I saw how tight the team was, and how they all acted like a big family. Team unity was really what drew me here.”

Wrote Justine Schluntz of Albuquerque: “Coming into my freshman year, I had no idea what I was getting into. I had chosen Arizona because I knew it had a great history of making swimmers faster. My goals were purely individual goals and I had no concept of ‘team.’ As my freshman year began, I realized that the team culture was so overwhelming that there was no way to ignore it.”

A year later, Arizona finished No, 3 at the NCAA finals, followed in 2010 by a No. 4 finish. After finishing fifth at the 2011 finals, Busch resigned to become director of USA Swimming’s national and Olympic teams.

Arizona has not finished in the NCAA’s “Final Four” since.

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Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. On Twitter: @ghansen711