Photo by Paul Mayhew/paulmayhewphotography.com
Michael Donovan’s 100 yd breast stroke time qualified him for State.
Eight Wimberley Texans punched their tickets to State with strong finishes at the Region IV-4A swim championship meet in San Antonio last weekend. Four relays, boys and girls 200 yd medley relays and 400 yd freestyle relays, and three individual events, Michael Donovan’s 100 yd breaststroke and Jeremiah Bales’ 50 yd freestyle and 100 yd butterfly, will have Texans on the starting blocks at the State Championships on February 12 and 13.
The girls 400 yd freestyle relay, made up of seniors Brooklyn Bursiel, Charlotte Woodward, Zorah Schwalb-Stang and junior Gracie Colyer, had the strongest showing with a third-place finish and a proud moment on the podium at the post-meet award ceremony.
The boys 400 yd freestyle relay, consisting of senior Rayder Pack, junior Michael Donovan, and sophomores Jackson Shinn and Jeremiah Bales, placed 4th in preliminaries and dropped to fifth in finals, securing a spot at State.
The boys and girls 200 yd medley relays were made up of the same swimmers as the 400 yd freestyle relays. The girls qualified for State by placing 6th. The boys had an impressive 3rd place finish in the preliminary round and were disappointed to fall to 5th in finals, but their time was fast enough to also secure a spot at State.
Donovan’s 7th place finish in the 100 yd breaststroke, and Bales’ 6th place finish in the 100 yd butterfly and 7th place finish in the 50 yd freestyle were all fast enough to get them to State.
For each individual event and relay, there are two ways for a swimmer to qualify for one of the sixteen spots in the UIL 4A State Championships meet. The top two finishers in each of the four regions automatically make up the first eight spots. The remaining eight spots go to the next eight fastest times in the entire (4A) state of Texas.
Woodward, Schwalb-Stang, Colyer, and Shinn all had strong 7th place finishes in their events - 50 yd freestyle, 500 yd freestyle, 200 yd freestyle and 100 yd backstroke, respectively - but narrowly missed the cutoff, with Bursiel’s 8th place 100 yd backstroke and Donovan’s 6th place 200 yd freestyle finishes also falling short.
The Texans showed their depth with many additional strong finishes. Colyer placed 9th in the 200 yd freestyle. The girls 200 yd freestyle relay, made up of juniors Rylie Jenkins and Ellie Jennings, sophomore Alayna Wahman and freshman Addy Paluch, finished in 11th place. Wahman placed 13th in the 200 yd IM and 11th in the 100 yd butterfly, and Paluch placed 13th in the 100 yd freestyle.
The Texans will travel to San Antonio to represent Wimberley at the State Championship meet February 12 and 13.
