The swim and dive team competed in the District meet, with numerous athletes cutting down their times allowing McNeil to send off the 17 athletes who qualified to compete in the Regional Swim and Diving Championships in San Antonio on Friday, Feb. 7. Swim and dive will advance to the State meet on Feb. 21.
Preparing for the district meet, the girls medley relay team adjusted their practices to match the high level district competition.
“Round Rock ISD swim teams are some of the best in the entire region, and our region is pretty much the best in the state,” junior Gabbi Allen said. “To prepare, we kind of taper our practices, slowly make it easier and easier so our body has time to rest and then we can give it our all at districts.”
In districts, the girls medley relays placed third, advancing to the regional meet. A last minute decision before their meet helped the team cut down their time, placing eighth in the regional meet.
“Our relay did a gamble, switching our backstroke and our butterfier,” junior Camila Mota said. “I did butterfly to try and get faster time and we were actually able to drop our time a bit, It felt like the risk was worth taking”
After advancing to the Regional meet, Childs’ preparation led to success. Childs added his name to the record board for the 500 free race in the regional meets with a time of 4:40.40, as well as advancing to the UIL 6A state meet in the 200-Meter Individual.
“Preparing for the meet, both my coaches brought down the volume, so it was a lot of sprint stuff, and then about like 10 hours to sleep each night,” Childs said. “Placing felt good, but now I need to focus on preparing for the state meet.”
Similarly, sophomore Kristen Burke tied McNeils 18-year-old 100 breastroke race record during the regional meet, also adding her name to the record board. Dropping her previous time by 1.5 seconds, Bruke swam a time of 1:07.79, placing first in her heat, with the eighth fastest time overall.
“Going into the final race, I was actually really tired and wasn’t expecting to do very well,” Burke said. “I reminded myself that it was my last chance to get anywhere close to the record, and even though I was in a really competitive heat it felt like the stars aligned, and when I looked up at my time I recognized the number and knew I did it.”
Childs said he is now preparing, getting plenty of sleep and focusing on his recovery till the state meet while his teammate Burke said she tries to focus more on the mental aspect of racing to push through.
“Coach Foss says whenever you get to these big meets, you always end up swimming with your heart and instead of your head,” Burke said. “I really think I did that during my race.”
