Mustangs Win Region 5-5A Swimming Championships
The Kingwood Mustang Swimming and Diving Team swept both the boys and girls team titles at the 2010 Region 5-5A Championships on Feb. 13 at the University of Houston. The Mustang girls scored 531 points over 308 for Cinco Ranch in second. The boys racked up 435 points versus second place Cinco Ranch with 266.
The Mustang relay dominance was a big factor in the win. The team took first in all six relays automatically qualifying them for the state meet on Feb. 26-27 at the Univeristy of Texas- Austin. Because relays score double, advancing the relays to state is a critical hurdle in the boys’ plan to repeat as 5A state champions and the girls’ quest to win a state title, something they have not done since 2004.
Regional Champion relay swimmers for the girls were: Michelle Gean, Jillian Vitarius, Leah Pfitzer, Jamie Friderichs, Madeline Hazle, Katheryn Nolen and Shannen Wehrman. Relay champs for the boys were: Ryan Glander, Joseph Bergmeister, Steve Ciliske, Jordan Jones, Hayden Polenz, Will Oswald, Matt Barber and Patrick Pash.
Winners of individual events also earned an automatic trip to state. Kingwood had four Regional Champions. For the boys, Barber won both the 200 and 500 yard freestyle and Jones took first in the 200 yard individual medley and 100 yard freestyle. For the girls, Gean won the 100 yard freestyle and sophomores Vitarius and Friderichs netted two individual gold medals each.
Worth the Wait
The rest of the Mustangs had to wait until two nights later to find out if their times at regionals would be fast enough to be called up to swim at the state championships. Typically, the call ups are released the night of regionals, but snow delays in the Dallas region postponed that tradition.
Swimmers earning a call up to the state meet in an individual event are: Ryan Glander in the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke; Pash in the 100 yard freestyle; Mitch Glander in the 500 yard freestyle; Bergmeister in the 100 yard breaststroke; Hazle in the 200 yard individual medley and Gean in the 100 yard breaststroke.
Depth Delivers
This year’s Region meet had a new twist. The UIL added a consolation finals heat so the meet mirrors the state championships. As a result, the top 16 finishers in each event scored points: the top eight in preliminaries advanced to the finals and 9-16 places swam in consoles.
This change worked in the Mustangs favor as they qualified multiple finalists in all but one individual event. In the girls’ 200 yard freestyle, Vitarius was first; Nolen was fourth and junior Kelsey Hammond won the consolation finals placing ninth followed by Carlly Nevill in tenth place. The boys had two All-America swims in the 200 freestyle: Barber was first with 139.78 and Ryan Glander was second with 141.19. Oswald took fifth in the event.
Four Mustang girls scored in the 200 yard IM. Hazle was second with an All-America time of 205.34. Danielle Meara earned the bronze medal followed by Rachel Martin in fifth and Sydney Conroy in eleventh place. Three boys made the finals heat of the 200 yard IM. Jones was the winner in an All-America time of 151.42 with Reed Dalton in fifth and Joe Decker in eighth.
The 50 yard freestyle was packed with Kingwood finalists. Friderichs led the girls with a first place finish followed by Pfitzer in sixth, Wehrman in eighth, and Lisa Swank in tenth. Four boys scored in the 50 freestyle: Bergmeister, 4th; Polenz, 7th; Ciliske winning the consolation heat, 9th; and Brian Li, 12th.
Ciliske was the sole Mustang to place in the boys’ 100 yard butterfly coming in fourth. On the girls’ side, the butterfly was an all freshman event: Hazle took bronze followed by Pfitzer in sixth, Conroy in eighth and Amanda Day in tenth place.
Fast Freestylers
Half of the girls’ 100 yard freestyle finals heat was made up of Mustangs. Gean took first place with teammates Lauren Day, Wehrman and Cami Luhrs scoring fifth, sixth and seventh places, respectively. The boys’ 100 freestyle finals was one of the fastest of the meet with the top four swimmers qualifying for state. Jones won the event in an All-America time of 46.11 with Pash coming in fourth. Evan Rowan and Luke Kerschbaum were 11th and 12th in the 100 yard freestyle consolation heat.
Friderichs broke the five minute mark to win the 500 yard freestyle with Nolen taking 3rd; Caiti Luhrs, 5th; and Hannah Sommers, 15th. Ironically, the boys had the same placement in the 500 yard freestyle final heat: Barber took first place in an All-America time of 4:34.16; Mitch Glander, 3rd; and Oswald, 5th.
All America Ending
In the final two individual events, the Mustangs scored big with three All-America swims. Vitarius defended her title as Region Champion in the 100 yard backstroke with an All-America time of 55.62. Swank was fifth place in finals and Lauren Day took sixth. Ryan Glander earned a silver medal in the backstroke and a second All-America time with a 51.34. Polenz was sixth in the backstroke race.
Gean won an event early in the meet, but she waited until the breaststroke to get an All-America cut. The senior, who has signed to swim at Rice University, went 105.01 in the 100 yard breaststroke to place second. Meara and Sara Walton came in sixth and eighth, respectively, and Laura Spurlock was 13th in the event. Bergmeister was the bronze medalist in the boys 100 yard breaststroke. Dalton won the consolation finals of the breaststroke event placing ninth overall with Pash, 10th; and Decker, 14th.
For complete meet results and a preview of the state championships line up, visit http://www.tisca.org/
