NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
McALLEN — Another year, another heated battle between McAllen High and McAllen Memorial for District 30-6A swimming supremacy.
“Competition is really everything, especially whenever there’s a little bit of rivalry and history behind it,” McAllen High’s Max Saenz said. “Not only that, but competing against your friends is one of the best things you can do, just to keep yourself in it and never quit.”
The final standings were a repeat of last year, as the Bulldogs boys and Mustangs girls were lifted by elite swimmers on their way to repeat titles on Saturday at the McAllen ISD Natatorium at McAllen Rowe.
Saenz had a stellar meet, earning gold in both of his relays and both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle.
“I felt like I had the best opportunity to not only medal at regionals but grab four firsts, hopefully,” Saenz said about switching from the butterfly to 100 freestyle. “I just think it’s the best outcome, being my senior year.”
Saenz finished the 50 freestyle in 22.41 seconds. In the 100 freestyle, he swam a 49.24, edging out his Bulldogs teammate James Moore by about half of a second (49.85).
“It was a lot of work that went into it, changing the events and going from (butter)fly to free, although I still do both of those events as my majors,” Saenz said. “Just a simple little switch. It wasn’t too big of a deal, but it was a change that had to be made.”
Shaine Casas, a Texas A&M commit, won the 100 butterfly with a time of 49.57, off his own best but enough for a pool record.
“It was a little slow, but it wasn’t terrible,” Casas said. “I choked on water the last lap. I don’t even know how it happened. It’s really rare it happened, but it happened twice today.”
Casas swam the 100 backstroke as his second individual event, switching out the 200 IM that he swam on his way to a silver medal at UIL state last season.
“It wasn’t really like a major decision,” Casas said. “I can swim whatever I want to. I kind of want to redeem myself, because I lost sophomore year. I wasn’t expected to win, but in my mind, (I was).”
Mario De Leon won the 500 freestyle for McHi while fellow Bulldog Gwanghoon Park earned bronze. McAllen Memorial’s Alan Cortez finished sandwiched between them for the silver.
Stacia Benitez and Casas were named female and male swimmer of the meet, respectively, for their four-gold performances.
In the girls competition, Memorial had big meets from some of the usual suspects that have been in the winner’s circle before.
Avia Guerra won the 100 and 200 freestyle. Benitez won the backstroke and butterfly by more than two seconds each. LiLi Bradford took gold in the 200 IM with a time of 2:30.83.
“I’ve been training hard all year long, but the week before district is crucial, because it’s the last week you train as hard as you can before you taper,” Benitez said.
Benitez was part of the medley relay that included Guerra, Sofia Salvo and Megan Blevins. Guerra is a freestyle specialist but swims the butterfly in the relay to ensure the team has its best chance to win. The Mustangs (2:01.11) out-touched the Bulldogs (2:01.82) by less than a full second to claim gold.
“I swim the fly on the medley, because even though it’s not my best stroke, it’s about using our combined power,” Guerra said. “We don’t all get to swim what we want, but it’s just all about doing what’s best for the team.”
The combined power of McAllen Memorial turned into a 170-151 win over McHi for the district trophy.
“I think it’s just when all of us come together and just really give it all our effort,” Guerra said. “Some of the other meets we may be tired, we may be out of shape, but at this one, we make sure to give it our all because we know it may be the last time we all swim together.”
Courtney Crocker and Alanah Moreno from McAllen High won gold in the 100 breaststroke and 500 freestyle, respectively.
McAllen Rowe girls, a usual challenger in the district meet, won the 400 freestyle relay for the team’s lone gold after graduating a strong group in 2017.
The Region 8-6A meet takes place next weekend at the Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center in Brownsville.