The swimming/diving team participated in the Conference 6A Region V Meet this past weekend. The Lobos brought 16 different swimmers in many different events, and they blew their competitors out of the water.

“This is the most we have had qualify for regionals in many years,” Assistant Coach Mr. Gober said.

Both boy and girl teams improved drastically this season. At Regionals, the girls placed 13th overall, and the boys placed 7th. For swimming, sophomore Katrina Nielsen and junior Brandon Quinteros will be advancing to the State Championship in Austin. Nielsen will compete in the 100M Backstroke and Quinteros will compete in the 200M Freestyle.

“My season went really well, and qualifying for State is like the icing on the cake,” Nielsen said. “I can’t wait.”

Both of the swimmers also set new school records in their events.

“Brandon swam a 1:40.80 and Katrina swam a 58.20,” Gober said. “Both beat their record by about a full second.”

In diving, 2 more Lobos qualified for the State Championship. Freshman Peyton Ford and sophomore Will Thompson will compete in the 1M 11 Dives.

“I’m really proud of myself,” Thompson said. “I guess you could say hard work pays off.”

Only the top 3 divers qualify from Regionals to State and Thompson and Ford took first and second. Both of them are now looking to beat our school diving record in Austin.

The road to Regionals was not an easy one. Everyone on the team practiced everyday for 2 hours, before or after school.

“I think your success in swimming is almost always directly related to your work ethic in practice,” Gober said. “Consequently, at almost every meet we had, the athletes dropped times. As a coach, that’s a great thing to see.”

    Both swimming and diving teams “competed excellently” at regionals and “[their coaches] are very proud. They are excited to see what the athletes have in store for the championships.