Eagle Staff Report
MANSFIELD -- The A&M Consolidated swimming team woke up Saturday in a hotel without power.
Consol provided some of its own at the Class 5A Region III meet at the Mansfield ISD Natatorium, winning the girls regional championship and qualifying several swimmers for state on both sides.
"I've been able to go back to 1979, and we've never been able to find a Consol female swimmer who has gone to state," Tigers' coach Ryan Goodwyn said. "But we had a relay and several individuals qualify today. It's the first regional title, so we're breaking new ground. I could not be more proud of them."
The Lady Tigers scored 424 points to outdistance Tyler Lee's 371.5 for the team title.
On the boys side, Consol had 309 points for second behind Tyler Lee (405).
Consol started the day well, with both girls and boys winning opening relays in the meet, which was postponed a day because of snow in Mansfield. Katie Hirsch, Robyn Miller, Stacie O'Shea and Erin VandeVanter combined to win the 200-yard medley relay in 1:53.03.
Miller raced to a 1:08.51 win in the 100 breaststroke. O'Shea added a win the 100-yard butterfly in 1:01.66 and was third in the 100 backstroke (1:02.50) behind Hirsch (1:01.29).
Shelby Buenger joined Hirsch, VandeVanter and Miller to take silver in the 400 freestyle relay in a time of 3:41.75.
In the boys 200 medley relay, Consol's Alex Kenderley, Hayden Duplechain, Mauricio Zambrano and Taylor Grieger took the gold with a time of 1:42.23.
Grieger took second in the 100 freestyle at 49.0.
VandeVanter finished second in the 200 freestyle (1:57.99) and in the 500 freestyle (5:24.87). Miller was second in the 200 individual medley (2:12.82).
State qualifiers are determined by regional champions and the next best eight times over the eight regions. State qualifiers cannot be determined until all of the regional meets are concluded. Weather postponements will keep that from happening until next week.
Duplechain swam 1:57.65 for second place in the boys 200 IM and was third in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.66). Christopher Munster's time of 4:55.17 placed second in the 500 freestyle.
Grieger, Mauricio Zambrano, Fernando Zambrano and Duplechain made up the 400 freestyle team that was second in 3:21.28.
Bryan junior Cullen Tolmsoff place third in the boys 50-yard freestyle, clocked at 22.84. Vikings' senior David Godinez's time of 55.14 earned third place in the 100 butterfly.
The Tiger girls swimmers were third in the 200 freestyle relay. Teresa deFigueiredo, Shelby Buenger, O'Shea and Maddie Hirsch finished that race in 1:44.38. The quartet of Grieger, Caleb Appleton, Alec Kenerley and Mauricio Zambrano were third in the boys' 200 freestyle relay in 1:32.49.