Scott doubles up on gold at regional meet
Johnson senior Jada Scott showed her dominance knows no bounds Saturday when she set one meet record and almost broke another at the Region VII-6A swimming and diving finals at Josh Davis Natatorium.
Scott set a meet record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.50 seconds, breaking the mark (22.65) she set in Friday’s preliminaries. Later, she nearly caught the meet record in 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.31, which is two-tenths of a second from Annie Chandler’s mark set in 2006.
“I feel really good right now, because I won’t lie, I was a little bit skeptical about my 100 breaststroke coming in because I haven’t been feeling my best in the breaststroke,” said Scott, who was selected as the girls swimmer of the meet. “I just had to keep pushing through.”
The Alabama-bound Scott and two-time Express-news Girls Swimmer of the Year flexed her versatility in her first year competing in both events.
“I came into this meet just wanting to have fun,” Scott said. “Throughout the years, I’ve realized that I just need to have fun because I happen to do better that way. In the beginning, I was so stressed. Now that I’m here having fun, I don’t care about the outcome.”
Entering the season, Scott was a three-time regional winner in the 200 individual medley. She also won golds in the 100 freestyle the last two years.
“Ever since my freshman year, I’ve always wanted to do the 50 free,” Scott said. “I was never able to because I had teammates who could only do the 50 free and other sprint events.”
The season, the Jaguars didn’t have a 50 freestyler, and Scott volunteered to fill that spot. Scott opted for the 100 breaststroke after recording a 1:00.73 in December at the Speedo Winter Junior Championships West meet in Austin.
“That made me feel real confident in the 100 breaststroke and I still do feel that way now,” Scott said.
The top two finishers in each event automatically qualify for the UIL Class 6A state championship set for Feb. 17-18 at UT’S Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin.
In four years on varsity, Scott has won seven individual golds and six in relays.
Clark senior Brayden Mandacina set a meet record in the boys 100 breaststroke with a time of 55.41. Mandacina set the previous meet mark (55.95) last year. He also set a pool record previously held by Benjamin Walker (55.46, 2015).
It was his best performance since last year’s regional meet.
“With Austin coming down here, it was a lot faster, and the competition was ten times stronger,” said Mandacina, who is signed with Xavier (Ohio). “It’s always fun to represent this team and it’s my last year competing for high school and couldn’t be more fun.”
Mandacina is headed to state in two events after finishing second in the 100 butterfly.
Churchill junior Carli Cronk successfully defended her titles in the girls 200 and 500 freestyles.
Cronk clocked 1:48.69 in the 200 freestyle, outpacing Reagan sophomore Montse Spielman (1:49.69). Cronk finished third in the event at state last year. Cronk also won the 500 freestyle in 4:56.58.
“I was close to a best time in the 200 free and in the 500 free, I went under five minutes, and I was pretty happy with that,” said Cronk, who is committed to Notre Dame.
Spielman later won the 100 butterfly by nearly one second with a time of 53.97. It was the first time she clocked faster than 54 seconds.
“I’ve had that 53 in mind for a long time,” Spielman said. “So, to finally be able to do that is really exciting. I’m super-happy with it.”
Spielman is also headed to state in the 200 medley relay after the Rattlers finished second.
Johnson boys took gold in the 200 medley relay with a meet-record time of 1:31.85, edging Round Rock Westwood (1:31.92) for the top spot.
Junior Ethan Moore anchored the Jaguars with a 20.56-second split in the freestyle to hold on to the win. In addition to Moore, the Jaguars relay consisted of Ian Stewart (backstroke), Luke Scott (breaststroke) and Sabastian Garcia (butterfly).
“I saw a couple of other people there, and I outtouched them,” Moore said. “We got first, and we’re going to state.”
The Jaguars qualified two other relays — the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle — with a second-place finishes.
Churchill senior Luke Peterson, who will be Mandacina’s teammate at Xavier, defended his regional title in the 200 freestyle (1:39.36).
Churchill senior Tommy Erwin, who is headed to Dartmouth, won the 500 freestyle (4:30.55).