A quench system includes an enclosure defining a quench chamber sized to receive hot castings, and bulk air fans in fluid communication with the quench chamber and configured to establish a bulk flow of cooling air that surrounds and extracts heat from the hot castings at a first cooling rate. The quench system also includes a pressurized cooling system in fluid communication with a plurality of nozzles within the quench chamber and configured to spray a plurality of a directed flows of cooling fluid onto the hot castings to extract heat at a second cooling rate. The quench system further includes a programmable controller configured to sequentially activate the bulk air fans to cool the casting at the first cooling rate for a first predetermined period of time, and then activate the pressurized cooling system to cool the casting at the second cooling rate for a second predetermined period of time.