The San Angelo Central High School girls team blew the competition out of the water and the boys team tied El Paso Franklin for first place Saturday at the San Angelo Swimming & Diving Invitational at the Gus Clemens Aquatic Center.
Central head coach Matt McLaughlin said before the season started that this might be the best Lady Cats team in school history.
It would be hard to argue against that after the Central girls finished with 678 points, nearly 200 points ahead of Franklin (499).
On the boys' side, Central and Franklin settled for a first-place tie with 267 points apiece.
McLaughlin was very happy with both of his teams this weekend.
"We swam pretty lights out," the Central coach said. "Going into the meet, we were talking to them and specifically with the boys' team that if we swam perfectly, we could win. And if we swam perfectly, we might get second still, but they ended up doing just enough.
"We tied with El Paso Franklin and coach (Polly) Perry runs a good team over there. We respect them a lot. And on the girls' side, top to bottom we swam really fast. We set a pool record in the girls' 200 medley relay. We had firsts in several events and then also followed that with a lot of depth and scoring lots of points in the A finals and B finals."
There was no stopping the Lady Cats at their home meet.
"We're crazy, crazy fast and with all the other teams, they're amazingly good," Lady Cats senior Whitney Edinburgh said. "This year, we're just pushing for higher goals and all that.
"And we have such a strong girls team that we'll be able to do all those goals we want. We just have such a variety and it's just amazing how fast we all are."
San Angelo Swimming & Diving Invitational
Saturday's final results from the Gus Clemens Aquatic Center(Top three individual and relay results only)
GIRLS DIVISION
Team totals -- 1. San Angelo Central, 678; 2. El Paso Franklin, 499; 3. Round Rock Cedar Ridge, 492; 4. Midland Legacy, 245; 5. Midland High, 224; 6. Amarillo High, 204; 7. Lubbock-Cooper, 154; 8. Amarillo Tascosa, 74; 9. Abilene Wylie, 68; 10. Stanton, 13; 11. Odessa Permian, 12.
200-yard medley relay -- 1. Central (Elsa Reel, Camila Acevedo, Whitney Edinburgh, Emma Watkins), 1:51.62; 2. Round Rock Cedar Ridge, 1:54.95; 3. El Paso Franklin, 1:56.72.
200 freestyle -- 1. Sydney Boudreaux, RRCR, 1:57.63; 2. Lainey Gloden, Midland Legacy, 2:03.97; 3. Watkins, Central, 2:04.39.
200 individual medley -- 1. Reel, Central, 2:11.03; 2. Mia Mata, EP Franklin, 2:20.31; 3. Maggie Marhefka, Amarillo Tascosa, 2:25.19.
50 freestyle -- 1. Avery Karacz, RRCR, 24.57; 2. Edinburgh, Central, 24.93; 3. Paula Brame, Central, 25.82.
1-meter diving -- 1. Allyse Abbott, Midland Legacy, 409.45; 2. Aubree Cruce, Midland Legacy, 361.05.
100 butterfly -- 1. Edinburgh, Central, 58.99; 2. Mallorie Manning, Central, 59.84; 3. Jaclyn Vargas, EP Franklin, 1:00.01.
100 freestyle -- 1. Karacz, RRCR, 53.70; 2. Victoria Miller, EP Franklin, 55.63; 3. Marisol Ortiz Aub, EP Franklin, 57.27.
500 freestyle -- 1. Gloden, Midland Legacy, 5:31.27; 2. Elizabeth Sites, Midland Legacy, 5:36.18; 3. Addison Donai, Lubbock-Cooper, 5:36.25.
200 free relay -- 1. Central (Reel, Manning, Watkins, Edinburgh), 1:41.53; 2. Midland Legacy, 1:44.51; 3. EP Franklin, 1:44.64.
100 backstroke -- 1. Reel, Central, 59.67; 2. Valeska Almanza, RRCR, 1:00.63; 3. Zoey Moore, Central, 1:03.87.
100 breaststroke -- 1. Vargas, EP Franklin, 1:11.32; 2. Acevedo, Central, 1:11.55; 3. Hannah Krueger, Midland Legacy, 1:11.75.
400 free relay -- 1. RRCR, 3:45.23; 2. EP Franklin, 3:52.07; 3. Central (Zoey Moore, Salma Hernandez, Paula Brame, Clara Cotton), 3:53.69.
BOYS DIVISION
Team totals -- T-1. San Angelo Central, 267; El Paso Franklin, 267; 3. Round Rock Cedar Ridge, 244; 4. Amarillo High, 154; 5. Midland Legacy, 134; 6. Lubbock-Cooper, 94; 7. Midland High, 67; 8. Amarillo Tascosa, 44; 9. Abilene Wylie, 41; 10. Stanton, 13; 11. Odessa Permian, 9.
200 medley relay -- 1. RRCR, 1:41.90; 2. Central (Tristan Thompson, Aidan Morales, Creed Thompson, Earl Childs), 1:41.97; 3. Midland Legacy, 1:44.60.
200 free relay -- 1. Nicolas Pinal, EP Franklin, 1:46.79; 2. Kyler Beights, Lubbock-Cooper, 1:47.01; Andres Cebrero, Amarillo High, 1:56.98.
200 individual medley -- 1. Alexander Purdy, Amarillo, 2:00.30; 2. Israel Montes, EP Franklin, 2:02.37; 3. Jack Hester, RRCR, 2:07.28.
50 freestyle -- 1. Jose Antonio Mancera, EP Franklin, 21.94; 2. Jake Shelton, Midland Legacy, 22.10; 3. Ethan Chau, RRCR, 22.67.
1-meter diving -- 1. Barrett Jacoby, Midland Legacy, 443.35; 2. Ethan Coronado, Stanton, 411.50; 3. Luke Juels, Lubbock-Cooper, 395.35.
100 butterfly -- 1. Joshua Stabler, RRC, 53.47; 2 C. Thompson, Central, 55.73; 3. Lance Dykhouse, Amarillo, 56.78.
100 freestyle -- 1. Mancera, EP Franklin, 48.17; 2. Pinal, EP Franklin, 48.41; 3. Hester, RRCR, 49.64.
500 freestyle -- 1. Beights, Lubbock-Cooper, 4:48.63; 2. Chau, RRCR, 5:05.95; 3. George Workman, Midland Legacy, 5:07.73.
200 freestyle relay -- 1. EP Franklin, 1:30.70; 2. RRCR, 1:32.61; 3. Central (T. Thompson, C. Thompson, Morales, Childs), 1:32.70.
100 backstroke -- 1. Purdy, Amarillo, 52.31; 2. Dykhouse, Amarillo, 55.88; 3. T. Thompson, Central, 57.92.
100 breaststroke -- 1. Montes, EP Franklin, 1:02.35; 2. Cameron Di Mery, EP Franklin, 1:04.34; 3. Childs, Central, 1:05.15.
400 freestyle relay -- 1. RRCR, 3:17.94; 2. EP Franklin, 3:18.25; 3. Amarillo, 3:27.04.
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: San Angelo Central swim teams put on a show at SA Invitational
