Three local swimmers qualify for State swim meet

Three local High School swimmers can circle their calendar on February 22 for the UIL the State meet in Austin.

Porter’s Jonathan Castillo, Diego Banda and Hanna’s Elva Saldana won the gold in their respective events to advance to State in the Regional swim competition held at the Margaret Clark Aquatic Center on Saturday afternoon.

Saldana won the 200-yard Individual Medley (2:16.38) and lapped her competitors in the 500-yard freestyle by winning by 20 sec-onds with a time of 5:22.44.

Those victories help lock up a fourth place finish for the Lady Eagle’s swim team behind 33 points from first place Regional winner Sharyland (101 points). With no seniors on the team Hanna coach Monica Rosales looked at the Lady Eagles performance as something to learn from for next season.

“This is experience and you can not teach this in practice,” Rosales said.” I can talk about it as much as I want to and try to prepare them mentally as much as I want but until you live it, you don’t know it. Now, they’ve experience it and I think they’ll be better prepared next time.”

Banda will compete in State in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle where he out reached (Julian Adame from McAllen Memorial) by .54 seconds to earn the right to compete in Austin.

“I was dying already and my legs were giving out.” Banda said “I felt all my muscles give out but I told myself this is the year I want to go to State and I can’t mess this up. I remember coach told me to always finish hard and I did.”

Porter coach Luis Roman Ortega added that the style in which Banda won his events made it that much more impressive.

“It would have been very easy for him to have lost both of those or at least come in second,” Ortega said. “They were never his to win, Victoria and McAllen Memorial they’re tough kids and for Diego come in with two and a half years experience and win both of his events is an awesome accomplishment. He won both of his events by less t than eight to ten inches combined so it’s an awesome win.”

McAllen Memorial won the Boys Regional championship while the Cowboys placed sixth including a third place finish in the 400-yard relay team. Castillo qualified for State in the 200 yard IM but missed out in the 100 yard butterfly losing to McAllen High’s Ricardo Sanchez by .48 seconds. Porter coach Luis Roman Ortega said he was pleased with the boy’s performances.

“I’m very proud of what they did today no doubt about that,” Ortega said. “I’m a little disappointed that Jonathan didn’t win his fly event. It’s a credit to Ricardo Sanchez who is an awesome swimmer, but for whatever reason Jonathan came up second. Other than we they all had good swims.”

With Castillo only having one event to focus on he is motivated to exhaust all his efforts in the 200-yard IM.

“For that one event I’m going to give it everything I have,” he said. “I’m going to leave everything out in the water.

Rosales was happy about Saldanas’ accomplishments but was even more gratified by the way she handled herself in the meets.

“I’m very proud of Elva,” Rosales said. “The thing is not only did she swim well but she was a good sport. She showed good sportsmanship to other swimmers who won in other events and I really liked that.”