RSS Feed |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
EC strong in regionals, Bard Austin bound
Saturday's regional swim meet in Katy was an event for the junior Lady 'Bird. Bard swam in four categories and took gold in one. A first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle qualified Bard for her second consecutive 4-A State Swim Meet appearance. Last year, she swam in the 500-yard freestyle. This year, in a sprint event, Bard said she will enter the University of Texas campus with a little more confidence because of last year's experience. As a team, the El Campo girls placed third overall in the meet, the highest place ever for an ECHS swim team at regionals. "I'm real excited because I'm not going to be as afraid," Bard said. "I won't have the deer-in-the-headlights look because I know that I can do well and I have more confidence in myself than before."
Bard's 25.79 time has her seeded 15th of 16 state swimmers. She said she tries to stay mentally focused before swimming and was reading inspirational quotes before she took to the water Saturday. During the race, Bard said she thought of one thing - her strategy. "I tell myself, 'Don't breathe until you're out of the flip turn and then the one breath you get, haul it home and try to beat everybody to the wall,'" Bard said. Though Bard was the only one to advance to state, several of El Campo's swimmers competed on the regional level, with the girls having a strong showing in Thursday's preliminary events. Every member of El Campo's girls swim team who advanced to the regional meet qualified for Saturday's finals. The boys team came up short against strong competition in the preliminary runs. Richard Nava, head coach of El Campo's swim teams, said he was pleased with Saturday's meet and the girls' results. "I'm proud of all my girls from Kristi Galow, who finished eighth (in the 500-yard freestyle), that's great, she dropped time this week and swam her best time on Thursday, she dropped 12 seconds in there, (to) Blythe (Nava) and Meredith and my other medley relay team," he said. "All my girls, I'm so proud of them." The girls entered Saturday's competition with great potential of advancing to state in three events. Bard finished just short of the gold medal in the 100-yard freestyle. That went to Friendswood's Lauren Lundquist, who beat Bard by just over a second. "I was telling myself, 'Go get her' and it didn't (work)," Bard said. "I was trying, but she started off faster than I did and I couldn't catch up. I should have started faster. She had a great first 50." The other event was the 200-yard freestyle relay. Bard joined with Blythe Nava, Randi McClure and Hailey O'Briant in the event. The four girls proved strong throughout the year and came into the meet hoping for a gold medal. After Friendswood's team was disqualified, El Campo entered the meet with the best time at 1:47.69. Bay City, seeing a good chance to sneak into first place, changed up its team. Nava decided to switch his team's order in the event. The coach opted to start the race with speed and moved Bard from the fourth swimmer to the first spot. "I just felt like we needed to, with Bay City dropping their medley and putting all their kids into their two frees, we had to change our strategy," Nava said. "I wanted to get some speed up front and I put Meredith, my fastest, up front and hopefully she would pull out a lead. It didn't work out the way I wanted it." Bay City and El Campo were tight during all four parts of the relay, but the Lady Blackcats' 1:44.34 time narrowly defeated El Campo's 1:46.50 effort. At the end of the race, the team was still hopeful for a call up to the state meet. If their time was among the fastest in all the regional swim meets, they would still qualify for the next level. The call-up list was announced early this week, but the Lady 'Birds were not able to claim a state trip. El Paso Chapin's time of 1:45.84 filled the 16th and final state spot. El Campo's outing proved solid. With several high finishes, the girls team took third place overall in Saturday's events. The following is a list of the regional tournament results, including preliminary outcomes, listed with the girls team first and then the boys. Since the boys did not qualify for the finals, all results are from the preliminary round. Girls Results 200-Yard IM Relay Prelims 5. El Campo (McClure, Kelsey Gangl, O'Briant, Sarah Rowland), 2:18.92 Finals 5. El Campo, 2:18.36 50-Yard Freestyle Prelims 1. Kara Griffith, Bay City, 25.65; 2. Bard, 25.93; 6. Nava, 26.59 Finals 1. Bard, 25.79; 2. Kaitlin Brangan, Bay City, 25.90; 6. Nava, 26.46 100-Yard Freestyle Prelims 3. Bard, 57.38; 5. Nava, 58.33 Finals 1. Lundquist, Friendswood, 56.18; 2. Bard, 57.21; 5. Nava, 58.55 500-Yard Freestyle Prelims 7. Galow, 6:28.80 Finals 8. Galow, 6:34.12 200-Yard Free Relay Prelims 1. Bay City, 1:45.77; 2. El Campo (Bard, McClure, O'Briant, Nava), 1:46.30 Finals 1. Bay City, 1:44.34; 2. El Campo, 1:46.50 400-Yard Free Relay Prelims 3. El Campo (Bard, McClure, O'Briant, Nava), 4:00.37 Finals 3. El Campo, 4:04.02 Final Team Rankings 1. Friendswood, 201; 2. Bay City, 59; 3. El Campo, 58; 4. Wharton, 54; 5. Angleton, 43; 6. Clear Springs, 39; 7. Worthing, 13; 7. Manvel, 13; 9. Waltrip, 10; 10. Brazosport, 9; 11. Dawson, 8; 11. Dickinson, 8; 13. Texas City, 2; 14. Stafford, 1 Boys Preliminary Results 200-Yard IM Relay 10. El Campo (Clark Kyle, Matthew Hamman, Travis Deiss, Colton Cornelius), 2:12.18 50-Yard Freestyle 13. Deiss, 25.91 100-Yard Freestyle 17. Deiss, 1:04.36 200-Yard Freestyle Relay 11. El Campo (Kyle, Cornelius, Hamman, Deiss), 1:58.26 |
for larger version       Ads have a Patent Pending. Click Here for More Information |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
)