Swimming: Eight is great: Carroll sweeps district titles for eighth consecutive year

Southlake Carroll's District 5-5A cohorts became the latest in a long line of swimming programs to feel their wrath in the pool Friday as the Dragons and Lady Dragons lapped the competition for respective district titles at the Keller Natatorium.

Carroll's boys and girls have now won eight consecutive titles since Kevin Murphy took over as head coach.

The balance of the team was displayed in the point totals, with the boys scoring 250 and the girls at 251. Keller Central (107 on the girls side and 87 in boys) finished second on both sides, with Keller (87 girls, 81 boys) taking third in each meet.

"We had a great time," Murphy said. "The pool was good, the lighting was good and the competition was good. We were prepared entering the meet and were fortunate to occupy 60-of-64 swimming spots at regionals. Overall, we qualified six divers and 37 swimmers for regionals and I was also pleased that we received a nice compliment from the head official about our behavior at the meet."

Carroll made it a clean sweep in the awards as well, claiming each of the eight superlatives.

Bryce Klein in boys diving, Lauren Crown in girls diving, Jonathan Roberts in boys swimming, Emily Gibson in girls swimming, boys and girls diving coach Carolyn Hryorchuk and boys and girls swim coach Kevin Murphy were all deemed the class of the respective meets.

Overall, Carroll touched the wall first in 5-of-6 relays and 13-of-18 individual events.

Gold-medal relays were procured in the girls 200-yard medley (Emily Gibson, MacKenzie Leonard, Sydney Wheeler and Casey Rose; 1:48.27), boys 200 medley (Jonathan Roberts, John Remetta, Jake Tovey and Jacob Elieson; 1:35.85), girls 200 free (Lindsay Schultz, Rose, Ashlin Anderson and Gibson; 1:38.32), boys 200 free (Eleison, Grayson Magruder, Austin Nguyenphu and Taylor Willenbring; 1:27.77), girls 400 free (Schultz, Jennie Hall, Rebecca Upton and Alexa Baran; 3:35.12) and boys 400 free (Roberts, Remetta, Tovey and Nguyenphu; 3:11.82).

Four of the relay teams (boys 200 medley, girls 200 free, boys 200 free and boys 400 free) set records at the venue - where they will again take aim Feb. 8-9 for the Region II Championships. The top six finishers in each event qualified for the next meet.

"I was really pleased with our relays," Murphy said. "We even had a swimmer (Emily Zapinski) that was sick and had to go home after her individual events, but we were able to plug in some other swimmers in the relays so she could get some extra rest and still did well."

Tacking on individual gold were Klein in boys diving, Crown in girls diving, Roberts in the 200 free (1:41.50, pool record) and 500 free (4:27.84, pool record), Zapinski in the 200 free (1:52.75, pool record), Remetta in the 200 individual medley (1:54.90), Gibson in the 50 free (23.99, pool record) and 100 butterfly (56.25, pool record), Tovey in the 100 fly, Schultz in the 100 free (52.59), Upton in the 500 free (5:01.97), Leonard in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.26) and Nguyenphu in the 100 breaststroke (58.94, pool record).

"Emily was our Michael Jordan of the meet," Murphy said. "She was running a high fever but still won gold in one event and bronze in another before we got her a rest during the relays."

Rounding out the medalists for the girls were Larkin Papa (second, diving), Sloan Papa (third, diving), Nathaniel Hernandez (second, diving), Upton (second, 200 free), Leonard (third, 200 IM), Nguyenphu (second, 200 IM), Schutlz (second, 50 free), Wheeler (third, 100 fly), Rose (second, 100 free), Magruder (second, 100 free), Willenbring (third, 100 free), Zapinski (third, 200 free), Connor Dobbs (second, 200 free), Carson Kelin (third, 500 free), Tovey (second, 100 back), Olivia Coffey (second, 100 breaststroke), Katie Nedrow (third, 100 breaststroke), Remetta (second, 100 breaststroke) and Austin Johnson (third, 100 breaststroke).

Also returning to Keller for regionals are girls Jennie Hall, Annika Ittiruck, Katelyn Johnson, Tanya Ittiruck, Nasha Luevit, Sarah Zobrist, Emily Torres and boys John Everett, Aaron Cosneza, Kyle McCall, Brandon Everett, Kyle Derevyanik, Kris Kolde and Austin Arkes.

"Regionals is going to be very exciting," Murphy said. "We want to win some events so we get automatic qualifiers and also have good times with other swimmers to make the call-ups. We want to swim our best times of the season and advance enough individuals and relays so we can make runs at state titles. But regionals is the meet where you have to really perform to make that happen."

In addition to the competition Carroll faced in district, the Dragons could face challenges by programs from Mansfield ISD, Lewisville ISD and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD.

"There are going to be good swimmers there," Murphy said. "I don't know if there is anyone that will be able to challenge us as a team, but there will be lots of spoilers individually who are going to make the meet very exciting."

District 5-5A Swimming and Diving Championships

Thursday and Friday at the Keller Natatorium

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

Girls

1. Carroll, 251

2. Keller Central, 107

3. Keller, 87

4. Keller Timber Creek, 43

5. Justin Northwest, 24

6. Richland, 21

7. Keller Fossil Ridge, 11

8. Haltom, 6

Boys

1 Carroll, 250

2. Keller Central, 87

3. Keller, 81

4. Keller Timber Creek, 61

5. Justin Northwest, 33

6. Keller Fossil Ridge, 19

7. Richland, 10

8. Haltom, 8

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