Twins winning together
After earning top regional honors for Mules, Connor and Lila Foote taking aim at state
It was a reluctant acceptance at first.
After all, swimming was Connor’s thing. He was perfectly happy seeing his twin sister thriving as a gymnast and then as a diver.
Then, Lila Foote decided to give swimming a try when they were 10.
“When she came over to swim,
I wasn’t too happy about it because I was young,” Connor Foote said. “But I had a bunch of my coaches that knew me and saw that she had some talent and helped her get to where she is.”
Lila tried hard to find her own thing. After trying several sports, she found a love for gymnastics. But she grew weary of the daily three-hour practices. The grind was too much, especially for someone in fourth grade.
She tried diving next. She liked it at first, but she developed a fear of diving off the board as the maneuvers became more difficult.
But Lila realized something then. She loved swimming back out of the pool after each dive. She had tried swimming before but didn’t take to it.
She decided to give it another shot.
“The moment I got back in was eye-opening,” Lila said. “I thought, ‘What changed?’ At first, I saw swimming as something Connor did, and I did not
want to be the same as him. I wanted to do my own thing. Then, I thought about what I wanted to do and what I liked to do.”
The twins, now juniors at Alamo Heights, will compete against the best in the state when the UIL state swimming and diving championships begin today at Josh Davis Natatorium.
Connor is the top qualifier in the Class 5A boys 100yard freestyle, an event he won at state last year. His qualifying time (44.61) is faster than the time he won the gold with last year (44.61). He also has the second-best qualifying time (49.23) in the 100 backstroke. He nabbed silver in the event last year with a 50.54.
Lila is qualified in the 100 backstroke with the third-best time (56.82) and the 100 butterfly with the fourth-best time (56.75). She was fourth in the 100 backstroke and sixth in the 100 butterfly at state last year.
“They’re kind of competitive in different sorts of ways,” said their mother, Michelle Foote. “Connor is more competitive in ‘I’m going to beat this person or I’m going to try to get the amount of time.’ Lila is more competitive with herself and try to do the best she can at that point. It has helped her that she practices with him because he’s a lot taller and a lot stronger, and she tries to keep up with him.”
Connor and Lila each were named Swimmers of the Meet at the Region IV-5A championships held earlier this month at Josh Davis Natatorium. Connor won the 100 backstroke by almost five seconds and won the 100 freestyle by 1½ seconds. Lila won the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke and swam legs in the Mules’ win in the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay.
“The fact they train together and belong to the same club, they’re always working together,” Alamo Heights coach Norm Collins said. “That seems to mesh in our practices so that they’re successful.” Connor has been more successful as of late, but it wasn’t always that way. Lila began winning competitions and qualifying for big events shortly after rejoining the swimming ranks. Connor wasn’t quite there.
But when Connor hit his first growth spurt when he was about 13 or 14, that changed.
“I was getting all the titles, and out of nowhere, Connor got really, really fast, and it was super shocking to me because I was the one who was getting all this attention,” Lila said. “But then it was Connor.
Both twins qualified for state when they were freshmen. Lila took fifth in the 100 backstroke. Connor was 16th in the 100 backstroke and 20th in the 100 freestyle. A year ago, Connor grew to 6-foor-2, setting up his breakthrough sophomore season in which he was named the 2020 Express-news Boys Swimmer of the Year.
“I still try to race him in practice,” Lila said. “I don’t really succeed, but it’s still motivational. …When I see him swim, it’s incredible. He’s in first place by six or seven seconds, which is just insane.”
Connor, now 6-4, said he grew two inches while quarantined because of the pandemic. He worked on strength training that time, and it’s helped. But to Lila, who stands 5-3 and is 42 minutes older, Connor will always be her little brother.
And she’ll never stop trying to catch him.