Hanna, McAllen Memorial enjoy home-pool edge at meet

The annual Texas Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association zone meet had a change of scenery, moving from Corpus Christi to the Rio Grande Valley.

There definitely were no complaints, especially from Hanna and McAllen Memorial.

The Lady Golden Eagles and the Mustangs each finished second while Elkins swept the meet Saturday at the Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center.

Hanna finished with 245 points, trailing Elkins’ 405, in the girls division, and McAllen Memorial stacked up 407 points behind the Knights’ 485.

Lady Golden Eagles coach Caroline Rush said the competition was fierce and was pleased with her teams performance.

“I don’t think I could have asked for more from the team,” Rush said who is in her second year at the helm of the Hanna swim program. “I was very impressed how we were able to come back (Saturday) and drop times. We want to repeat as regional champs, and this was a great meet for the team to learn from their mistakes and get better.”

The Mustangs won six events, with the team claiming the 200-medley relay, Julian Adame winning the 100 freestyle and backstroke, Matthew Orap the 100 breaststroke, Dylan Blackwell the 500 freestyle and John Waldinger the 100 butterfly.

In the boys 200 free, Mission High's David Santos swam past Waldinger for the top spot.

For the girls, the Lady Mustangs’ Maylin Meisenheimer won the 50 and 100 free. Teammate Leah Sanchez won the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, and Amanda Alvarez took the 100 backstroke.

Other local winners included Pace’s Victoria Salinas, who easily won the girls 100 butterfly by more than three seconds with a time of 1:02.28.

For the second-place Lady Golden Eagles, Natalie Castillo won the 500 free over teammate Karina Galvan, and Ayme Saldana finished first in the 200 free.

The field of 24 schools had been making the trip to Corpus Christi for the meet but the district’s natatorium is under construction, opening the door for Brownsville.

Margaret M. Clark Aquatic Center Administrator Monica Rosales didn’t hesitate when asked if the meet could be moved to Brownsville.

“It’s great to be able to host a meet like this,” Rosales said. “I sent an e-mail out to the coaches telling them how nice our town was and they came. (The coaches) were very impressed by our aquatic center, and especially with the extra pool for the disabled because not many natatoriums have them.”

One of the coaches that didn’t mind the extra drive was El Campo swim coach Richard Nava, who drove his team 300-plus miles to compete.

“Monica was very gracious to host the meet, and the (Margaret M. Clark) facility is awesome,” Nava said. “It really supersedes most of the other aquatic centers.”

Louie Vera covers sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via e-mail at lvera@brownsvilleherald.com.