By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — For a seventh straight year, the McAllen Memorial boys swimming team came away with a district title.
The Mustangs won the 30-6A crown on Saturday at the McAllen Swim Club at Rowe, securing top honors in eight out of 11 events, while sending 14 individual swimmers to the Region VIII-6A tournament next week in Brownsville.
Atop coach Roxanne Balducci’s to-do list? Reclaim the regional title from defending champion Corpus Christi King.
“This is the first step to doing that,” Balducci said after a celebratory dunk in the pool. “We’re going to work real hard and see what happens. We got a lot of people going to regionals. That’s the first thing: you’ve got to get them there. Now that we did that, we have to get them to the finals.”
As a whole, they were dominant. They took the top three spots in the 200 freestyle and four out of the top five in the 200 IM. Memorial accumulated 211 points on Saturday, far surpassing runner-up McAllen High (148 points) and third-place McAllen Rowe (83).
They did it with Brian C. Holmes (100 backstroke), Christopher Rock (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle), Joseph Velasquez (100 breaststroke) and Joshua Velasquez (200 individual medley) winning their respective events. In fact, Holmes, who set a district record in the 100 backstroke (54.78), came just a couple votes shy of being named the boys athlete of the meet.
The Mustangs’ 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle and 200 medley teams also won.
“The swimmers did awesome,” Balducci added. “Every boy and every girl — everyone on the team rose to the challenge.”
Memorial’s girls team totaled 146 points to finish in second place behind Rowe (176). Of the 11 events, the Lady Mustangs qualified swimmers to compete in 10 of those at regionals. They won four of those events on Saturday with Hannah Bradford (100 breaststroke), Sarah Aleman (200 IM) and Avia Guerra (500 freestyle) crowning. Memorial’s girls also won the 200 medley relay.
Contrary to the senior-laden Memorial boys, the girls’ roster was carried by its youth. Bradford, a freshman, also will compete in the 100 freestyle at regionals after finishing in second place. Guerra, a freshman, came in fourth in the 100 butterfly, securing another regional event. And Aleman, a junior, will join her in the same event after finishing third.
STAYING STRONG
After the girls won a third straight district title, Rowe coach Amy Gallegos was at a loss for words.
“I don’t know (how they did it),” Gallegos said. “They just went out there and swam the best that they could and they pulled it off.”
Even with a lack of divers and only two seniors on the team, the Lady Warriors (176 points) won comfortably over McAllen Memorial (146) and McAllen High (123).
Rowe won six events and will send participants to regionals in every one of the 11 events.
“I knew we had the talent to win from the beginning, but you never want to underestimate your opponents,” Gallegos said. “We didn’t count our chickens before they hatched and even though we had a rough start, after the 100 butterfly I thought we knew (we’d win this meet).”
Rowe won the 100 butterfly with Ina G. Te (1:02.39). Te, who also won the 50 freestyle and was part of the winning 200 and 400 relay teams, was named the girls athlete of the meet.
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
McAllen High’s boys finished in second place Saturday and its girls came in third place. The Bulldogs tied for first in the 200 freestyle relay, claiming runner-up finishes in both the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.
The Lady Bulldogs Bulldogs finished in second place in the 200 freestyle relay and in third place in both the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay.
Errol E. Lizzotte won the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly. He was also part of the 200 freestyle relay team that tied for first and helped the 400 freestyle relay team finish second. He was named the boys athlete of the meet.