It may sound like old news, but that's only because Southlake residents have heard it many times before this: Southlake Carroll's Boys Swimming & Diving team placed first at the state championship. The state title marks Carroll's eighth-consecutive win at the state level and tenth title in total.
"Saturday, we got excited, and our first two relays were just outstanding and we just rode the wave from there,” head swim coach Kevin Murphy says.
The sweeping victory was not without its trials, however.
"It was really quite a brutal Friday,” he says. “Prelims were very rough, both for us and for the other teams."
In fact, according to Murphy, 83 percent of the swims statewide were slower than they were at regionals. The results put the team in a gloomy mood, but assistant coach Paul Wallace wouldn't stand for it.
"[He] got them kind of stirred up by telling them to quit moping around and play some music and enjoy themselves,” Murphy says. “Then they continued doing that and went and lit things up on Saturday. Thanks to my assistant coach for getting them stirred up a little bit because we were all kind of down."
The girl's team also made a showing at the Austin meet, finishing runner-up to The Woodlands, 253 points to 215. The boy's team earned a point total to 247, leaving the runner-up well behind with 196. Dragon divers heavily contributed to these point totals with freshman Jackson Miller earning first place on the boy's team and freshman Hailey Hernandez taking home gold followed by sophomore Bridget O'Neil in second place for the girl's team.
Stanford-commit and senior Jack LeVant was also a large contributor as he set new state records in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events. Keep an eye out for his feature in Dragon Pride Winter!