MARCH 2021 DM NEWSLETTER

Our Dallas Mustangs just had their best Texas Age Group Swimming (TAGS) meet in quite some time last weekend finishing in the top 10 with a strong 9th place showing. Twenty-one Mustangs made the trip down to the CISD Natatorium in the Woodlands for one of the most competitive age group meets in the country held March 4th – 7th. Despite the crazy year and season, your swimmers found a way to not only qualify either individually or on a relay but also to swim their hearts out and post some very fast times.

We had two swimmers with two state championship wins. Sienna Acuff won gold in the 11-12 Girls 50 backstroke with a wire-to-wire win in a blistering 27.69. She also captured two silver medals. One in the 100 back (59.46) and the other one in the 200 back (2:07.59). All three times were new DM 11-12 Girls records! She led our individual scorers with 92 points scoring also in the 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free.

Karolina Valko’s gold medal event came in the 10 & U girls 50 free. Her 27.11 was the third-best in DM history. She also has now the fastest 50 fly in DM history (30.66). Simone Edwards was also on fire this weekend. Both Karolina and Simone have now several top 10 DM swims to their credit. On DM they were 2nd (89 pts) and 3rd (82 points) and helped our 10 & U girls finish very high in the team standings. Our 10 & U girls scored the 3rd most points of any team in the meet. We were less than 30 points behind Nitro and Cyprus Fairbanks which were huge teams of over 1000 kids which are 3-4 times the size of our team. 10 & U Girls relays got 2nd in the 400 free relay (Valko, Christine Salmassian, Gia Euseppi, Edwards), 3rd in the 200 free relay (Edwards, Euseppi, Salmassian, Valko), and 4th in the 200 medley relay (Salmassian, Reese Mattison, Valko, Edwards).

Sean Li and Ruihan Zhu scored top 8 in both breaststroke events. Ruihan’s 1:00.69 was the fastest DM 13-14 boy in 100 breast in history. Sean’s time is the 3rd fastest ever and he also made the A final in the 200 breast and 50 free. His season best 50 free is 22.39 which is the 5th all-time in his age group. Ruihan and Sean also now are the 2nd and 3rd fastest DM 13-14 boys breaststrokers (2:13.42 & 2:13.85 respectively). The 13-14 boys 200 medley relay was 5th with Zack Geller, Zhu, Cody Le, and Li. The same combination of guys was 8th in the 400 medley relay.

Zayne Wieland had a couple final top 8 swims (50, 100 back) and now is in our top 10 in the 10 & U boys 100 back with his 1:11.61. Both Danielle Greenwood (2:08.22) and Angelina Huang (2:08.07) scored valuable 200 back points and are now in the 13-14 girls all-time top 10. Danielle also scored in the 100 free and both Angelina and Chloe Fisher are now in the 13-14 Girls 100 back top 10 all-time list as well (58.75 & 58.54) and got a second swim at TAGS in the 100 back. Lulu Fisher also scored in the 11-12 50 free final with Sienna. She joined Natalie Estrada, Allie Burau, and Sienna on the 7th place 400 free relay.

Other scoring relays were:
*13-14 Girls 400 free relay (9th with Danielle Greenwood, Nicole Estrada, Angelina Huang, Chloe Fisher)
*13-14 Girls 200 free relay (13th with Estrada, Greenwood, Fisher, Huang)
*13-14 Girls 200 medley relay (12th with Fisher, Leila Tarighi, Huang, Greenwood)
*13-14 Girls 400 medley relay (16th with Fisher, Tarighi, Huang, Greenwood)
*13-14 Boys 200 free relay (8th with Sean Li, Miller Martin, Carlos Pineda, and Cody Le)

Way to go Mustangs!!!

SPEEDO LONE STAR INVITATIONAL

(Sectional Meet Replacement)

Not to be outdone by their younger teammates, our senior Mustangs had some impressive performances at their championship meet and added to the assault on our team’s all-time top ten list. Our 15 and over swimmers competed in the Speedo Lone Star Invitational, which took the place of the traditional Sectional meet due to COVID restrictions. Over 30 teams from around Texas and as far away as California gathered together (but socially distanced, of course) in Mansfield March 4-7. Our Mustang swimmers had a balanced contribution from both our women’s and men’s teams, finishing 11th and 12th respectively. We had best times up and down our roster but the best part was seeing the Mustangs support and cheer for each other throughout the meet. Our top relay performance was the women’s 200 free relay, in which our swimmers (Emma Hrasko, Brooke Adams, Josie Arbuckle and Mary Grace Martin) finished fourth and missed the 15-16 North Texas LSC record by less than three tenths of a second! Our top individual point scorers were Brooke Adams for the women and Luke Lang for the men. Below are the Mustangs who competed in the meet (scorers in boldface) along with events in which they achieved all-time top ten DM times:

 

Brooke Adams – 200 back (2:03.45 – 8th), 100 free (51.00 – 5th)

Josie Arbuckle – 100 back (57.38 – 7th)

Ryan Armstrong – 1650 free (16:42.77 – 9th)

Carson Brockette

Grant Clossen – 50 free (21.80 – 8th), 200 free (1:42.80 – 5th), 100 free (46.85 – 4th)

Estelle Fisher

Emma Hrasko – 100 free (51.83 – 7th)

Alex Hung – 100 fly (51.26 – 4th)

Audrey Jacobson

Theo Johnson – 50 free (21.30 – 10th)

Luke Lang – 500 free (4:30.67 – 7th), 1650 free (15:48.62 – 3rd)

Mary Grace Martin

Kalima Murugan

Nicolas Sobenes – 100 fly (51.11 – 3rd), 200 fly (1:54.13 – 5th)

Jackson Summers

Annabel Symington

MJ Ward – 100 back (50.25 – 5th)

Daniel Wu

Katherine Yao – 400 IM (4:26.40 – 3rd), 100 fly (57.59 – 9th), 200 breast (2:23.82 – 8th), 200 IM (2:06.24 – 5th)

 

Great Meet, Mustangs!

NEW TEAM SUITS FOR THE SUMMER

To get the summer season started off with a bang and to show our togetherness as a team, we are introducing our new team suit. There are different styles for each swimmer to choose from and we ask that all of our swimmers wear either these new suits or the traditional royal blue suit at the meets, unless of course, the 13 and over swimmers want to wear a Speedo tech suit for the bigger meets (reminder that the 12 and under swimmers are not allowed to wear tech suits at meets).

 

25% off before the end of March on this and

any other Speedo products!

Please contact D&J Sports to make your order.

 

Here are the different styles (ours will be in blue and red)

SUMMER SCHEDULE

 

We are working hard to determine the summer practice schedule and in the process of finalizing our summer meet schedule. It continues to be a challenge as we are waiting to hear about pool availability for the summer. As soon as we have updates, we will send it out via email and update the website. Thank you for your patience and understanding!