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Wimberley Headed to Take State in Swimming |
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Written by Special to the Texan Times
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Friday, 19 February 2010 |
As some of you may or may not know, Kyle Owens - a junior at WHS - recently qualified at the Region 5-4A swimming championships to advance to the UIL 4A State Swimming Championships. This is the first time in WHS history for one of our swimmers to make it into the State championship meet. Kyle qualified in the 200 yard Individual Medley (IM) and the 100 yard breaststroke. Only 16 swimmers in Texas, in each event, make it into the State Swimming Championship meet. Kyle goes in seeded 7th fastest in the 100 Breaststroke and 10th in the 200 IM. Less than a second and a half separates the top eight swimmers in the 100 breaststroke. Also keep in mind that the majority of those making the State meet are coming from large, well funded 4A schools, most of them with well established 'feeder' USA Swim Clubs and many with their own natatoriums. As you all know, we don't even have a pool in Wimberley, let alone a year-round USA Swim club program here. Making it to the State Championship swim meet is a major accomplishment for any swimmer and certainly as much or even more so for a Wimberley swimmer. This is an exciting "happening" for the relatively young WHS swim program.
If you are interested in possibly attending the championship meet to support Kyle in Wimberley's first ever appearance at this championship event - and see some very fast high school swimming - here is some info that may be helpful.
The 4A Championship meet takes place over two days - Friday, February 26th - starting at 10 AM and Saturday, February 27th - starting at 9:30 AM. There are two heats of 8 swimmers in every event. Friday's meet is the "preliminaries" and will determine who advances to the finals vs. who swims in the consolation finals on Saturday. This is a big event and will be crowded so if you plan to attend give yourself time to get parked and to the swim center. The events are fast so you can expect the meet will take no more than 3 to 3 1/2 hours to complete.
The UIL 4A Swimming Championship meet will take place at the University of Texas Swim Center (Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center). The Texas Swim Center is located on the corner of Martin Luther King and San Jacinto on the southeast corner of the UT campus - not far from the UT football stadium. Enter the Swim Center on the east side. The following link (which can be copy/pasted into your browser) is to the UIL State Swim Meet Informational site and includes specific meet information, directions and maps. UIL State Swim Meet Site link: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/athletics/swim_dive/state/index.html
If you've never been to the UT Swim Center, it is a beautiful facility with a lot of very fast swimming history. It is considered one of the "fastest" pools in the country. Most of the big names anyone has ever heard of in swimming (i.e. - Phelps, Peirsol, Caughlin, Torres, etc.) have raced here as evidenced by their names on the pool record boards in the swim center.
Let's get some folks to Austin to cheer on and support Kyle in Wimberley's first time at State in swimming.
Go Texans! |