St. Agnes dominates at TAPPS tourney
Tigers break two school records en route to 26th state crown
St. Agnes left quite an impression with its performance at last week’s Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools State Swimming Championships in San Antonio.
The Tigers dominated the Division I girls’ competition at the Josh Davis Natatorium, racking up 225 points to win easily over rival Dallas Ursuline with 179. Awty took third with 116, with Duchesne sixth with 76 and Tomball Concordia Lutheran eighth with 36.
“We had an awesome meet. I can’t stop smiling,” said St. Agnes head coach Kaitlin Kelley. “We were a well-oiled machine and our margin of victory is still kind of hard to believe.”
In all, St. Agnes swimmers set a whopping 17 personal records, in addition to two new school records.
The 200-yard medley relay of junior Anastasia Kontrimas, sophomore Bridie Hibbler, sophomore Fernanda Machicao and junior Lilli Storemski broke the previous record by posting a time of 1:52.02.
Kelley said the 200medley relay set the tone for the entire meet while providing some needed redemption for St. Agnes, which finished as state runner-up to Dallas Ursuline a year ago.
“Our 200 medley relay was disqualified last year. We battled back the whole meet but weren’t able to overcome the deficit,” Kelley said. “Winning this time was really special, especially for Bridie. When she was DQ’ed, she was devastated and felt she let down the team. Bridie was pretty emotional after we won. I think she felt vindicated.”
The positive energy from the 200 medley relay carried through the entire meet.
The Tigers ranked second in the other two relays. The 200 freestyle relay of Storemski, junior Isabella Smith, sophomore Lilli Metts and Kontrimas were clocked in 1:40.68, while the 400 freestyle relay of Machicao, Hibbler, Smith and Metts finished in 3:44.68.
St. Agnes’ dominance was on full display in the 50 freestyle, with four swimmers placing among the top eight. Smith was the Tigers’ lone individual state champion (25.04), edging out Hibbler (25.08). Storemski came in sixth (25.77) and junior Delaney Wolfe eighth (26.14).
In the 100 freestyle, Smith was fourth (54.98), Metts fifth (55.13) and Storemski seventh (56.68), while junior Meg Meliet was seventh (2:06.31) and freshman Fendley Russell eighth (2:07.36) in the 200 freestyle.
Kontrimas claimed a silver medal in the 500 freestyle (5:16.52), followed by Machicao in sixth (5:29.17) and Meliet in seventh (5:35.74). She also lowered her owns chool record with her third-place effort in the 200 individual medley (2:09.58), one spot better than senior Sarah Steffes (2:17.55).
St. Agnes also scored well in the specialty strokes, too. In the 100 butterfly, Machicao was third (1:00.89), Steffes fourth (1:01.64) and freshman Rachel Wright seventh (1:02.94). Metts grabbed third place in the 100 backstroke (1:01.94), while Russell was eighth (1:04.97). Hibbler’s breakout meet continued with a secondplace effort in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.08), with Wright picking up a few points by placing eighth (1:13.67).
St. Agnes cemented its status as the premier private school girls’ aquatics program in Texas, collecting a 26th state crown (including 25 since joining TAPPS) and the Tigers second in three years. In the process, they created more work for Amy Mattes, St. Agnes’ director of athletics.
“Amy was just as excited as I was,” Kelley said. “We’re going to need another banner and, with all the records we’ve set, we have to update the board.”
Get used to it. St. Agnes is here to stay, with only one senior (Steffes) tallying points at this year’s state meet.
“It’s scary how good we could be,” Kelley said. “Everyone but Sarah is coming back. We could be even stronger next year.”
Four tankers reach state
Four Houston ISD athletes – three boys from Lamar and one Westside girl – will compete at the UIL State Swimming and Diving Championships this week at the University of Texas in Austin.
Lamar senior Riley Carson will join sophomores Ridge Livermore and Ben Lux at the Class 6A meet at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center. Preliminaries will take place Friday, Feb. 19, with the finals on Saturday, Feb. 20,
Carson and Livermore were call-ups in the 500yard freestyle and 200yard individual medley, respectively.
Neither Carson’s qualifying time of 4:35.50 or Livermore’s 1:53.07 rank high in their events, but Lamar head coach S.R. “Mac” McDonald is confident that both swimmers will improve on their premeet seedings.
“Winning a medal might be tough, but Riley and Ridge are capable of making the A finals,” McDonald said.
Meanwhile, Lux advanced to state for the second year in a rowin diving. His regional qualifying score was 408.10 points.
“Ben has increased his degree of difficulty,” McDonald said. “If Ben is hitting his dives, he has a chance to dowell.”
Westside junior Kaley Hoffman snagged the final spot in the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley with times of 57.91 and 2:07.46.
Westside head coach Craig Sikkema was proud of Hoffman, who missed a trip to state a year ago by a fraction of a second.
“I was hoping we’d get a couple of relays to state, but I’m happy for Kaley. She deserves it,” Sikkema said.