Bard's state showing one of best

Meredith Bard

El Campo's Meredith Bard met Austin with a strong showing in the state swimming championships Friday and Saturday.

Bard entered the meet seeded 15 out of 16 swimmers in the 50- yard freestyle event with a 25.79 time. A great showing in Friday's preliminar- ies moved her ranking up considerably.

She broke her own school record in that round with a time of 25.34. It moved her up to ninth place and only one spot away from qualifying for the overall finals and a chance at placing.

Bard went back to swim Saturday on the last day of the meet. She competed against swimmers ranked nine through 16 in the B level finals and finished 12th with a time of 25.46.

In a 50-yard event no mistakes can be made, and Bard felt her start and her turn were not executedas well as she'd have liked.

Her 12th-place finish earned five points in the total ranking and placed El Campo High School 46th out of a total 53 schools represented in the state championships.

In the top eight swimmers, the lowest time recorded in the finals was 25.30, close to Bard's best time.

Though not officially in El Campo's swimming district, the gold medal went to a girl from a familiar foe in other sports. Foster's Skylar Smith took first place at state with a 23.37 time.