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The 2019 Texas 6A Girls’ State Swimming and Diving Championships took place on Saturday, Feb. 16 at the Lee and Joe Jamail Natatorium on the campus of University of Texas – Austin.
Katy Taylor’s Emma Sticklen highlighted the meet by breaking the Texas overall state and 6A record in the 100 fly. Houston Stratford’s Emma Stephenson also set a new class mark in the 50 free as Southlake Carroll secured the team title with 298 points.
Click here for full results.
Top 5 Team Scores:
1. Southlake Carroll – 298
2. Conroe the Woodlands – 221
3. Lewisville Flower Mound – 198
4. Katy Talor – 159
5. Humble Kingwood – 154
Conroe the Woodlands’ Syd Roycraft (26.73), Alyssa Sorensen (29.59), Lillie Nordmann (23.25) and Valerie Anne Staffeldt (22.99) began the meet with a narrow victory in the 4×50 medley relay in 1:42.56, just ahead of Southlake Carroll’s 1:42.78. Katy Taylor finished third in 1:45.13.
Not too long after helping her team to medley relay gold, Nordmann was back in the water to lead the top four swimmers under the 1:50-barrier in the 200 free. She won in 1:45.55 ahead of Austin Anderson’s Ella Collins (1:47.06) and Cibolo Steele’s Evelyn Bruner (1:49.18).
Only a half-second separated the top three finishers in the 200 IM. Harvard-bound Natalie Whalen of Southlake Carroll got her hands to the wall first in 2:01.41, just ahead of her teammate Corbyn Cormack who placed second in 2:01.80. Mansfield’s Maddie Mechling finished a close third in 2:01.91.
Stephenson, who will attend Texas A&M this fall, splashed-and-dashed her way to the 6A title in the 50 free with a quick 22.67, eclipsing Nordmann’s previous class mark of 22.68 set in 2017. Southlake Carroll’s Kit Kat Zenick raced to second in 22.81 while Round Rock Westwood’s KyAnh Truong sprinted to third in 22.85.
Southlake Carroll’s Hailey Hernandez dove to the top of the podium on the 1-meter board, finishing with a final score of 540.40. Her teammate Bridget O’Neil was the runner-up with 525.70 points ahead Conroe’s Reagan Hinze who took third with a score of 440.75.
Sticklen flew to the top of the podium in the 100 fly in record-setting fashion. Her time of 51.88 broke Dakota Luther’s 6A and State record of 52.16 set last year. Also under the old mark was Nordmann in second with a time of 52.08 and Stephenson took third in 52.95.
After taking second in the 200 free, Collins, a Virginia commit, sprinted her way to the gold medal in the 100 free. She finished in 49.53 as the only swimmer in the field to crack 50 seconds. Austin Westlake’s Emma Wheal was second in 50.22 and Southlake Carroll’s Riley Francis raced to third in 50.30.
Cypress Creek freshman Hayden Miller dropped over six seconds from her morning time to win the 500 free in a new lifetime best of 4:50.13. Katy Seven Lake’s Beth McNeese raced to second in 4:52.10 and a final time of 4:53.68 was fast enough to secure third for Whalen.
The gold medal in the 4×50 free relay went to Klein’s Charlotte Longbottom (23.84), Halli Williams (24.01), Madeline Vindiola (23.68) and Jordan Hennig (22.93) in 1:34.46, nearly a full second faster than Lewisville Flower Mound (1:35.38) and Southlake Carroll (1:35.65).
Stickler added a win in the 100 back to match her hardware earned in the 100 fly, stopping the clock in 53.01. Humble Kingwood’s Abigail Ahrens (54.56) and Fort Bend Clement’s Meredith Brown (55.34) completed the top three podium finishes.
Shortly after helping her free relay team win gold, Longbottom dove back in the water to win the 100 breast. She got her hands to the wall in 1:02.68, only three-tenths ahead of runner-up Cormack (1:02.98). Lewisville Flower Mound’s Jenna Watson took third in 1:03.24.
Southlake Carroll’s Zenick (49.75), Francis (50.24), Whalen (51.46) and Ashley Zettle (51.45) concluded the girls’ meet by winning the 4×100 free relay in 3:22.90 by five seconds. Second went to Conroe the Woodlands (3:27.88) and third belonged to Klein (3:27.97).
