Tigersharks set to sink competition

The Texarkana Independent School District's Board of Trustees is considering a lease agreement with Texarkana College for exclusive use of the swimming pool at TC's Pinkerton Center. If approved, TISD would take control of the aquatic portion of the center for their swimming program.
The Texarkana Independent School District's Board of Trustees is considering a lease agreement with Texarkana College for exclusive use of the swimming pool at TC's Pinkerton Center. If approved, TISD would take control of the aquatic portion of the center for their swimming program.

The District 16-5A swim and dive championships aren't really up for grabs.

The Texas High Tigersharks have a firm hold on the team titles, and Saturday's battles will be to see how many Tigersharks qualify for the regional championships in February.

"Our boys team is very good this year. We have swam against some very good 6A and 5A teams and beaten most of them," Tigershark head coach Eric Vogan said.

The boys will be going for their 21st consecutive district championship, as well as their 21st regional championship, in two weeks at Mansfield ISD Natatorium. The Texas High girls are chasing their 16th straight district title.

Max Young, Robert Frost and Jackson Shellogg lead THS in the sprints. Owen Likins, Brady Moore and Joshua Oldham anchor the Tigersharks in the mid-range and distance races. John David Cass, Logan Diggs and Dylan Rosser will lead the way in the butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke.

"We are very confident right now, we think that we can compete very highly at state, we are glad to be together and we love what we are doing," senior captain Moore said. "Our entire team has worked very hard, and it is very important to get everyone that we can to qualify for regionals."

Each team can enter only four swimmers per event, a rule that means good swimmers will be left out of Saturday's meet.

"We are having to leave out swimmers who could easily make district teams on any other team in our district or our region," Vogan said. "The girls team is in more of a rebuilding year. We do have a few strong swimmers, but we also have some girls who are younger and working very hard and getting faster all the time."

Even in this rebuilding year, the girls are strong enough to win the district crown hands down.

Fezeka Barnes and Emma Seidenschwarz will lead THS in the sprint events. Avery Morrill and Hannah Klein should shine for the girls in the mid-range and distance swims. Haley Wood and Katelin Seidenschwarz will lead the way in the breaststroke and butterfly. Wood and Katelin Rogers head up the 200 IM swimmers. Sprinter Allyson Smith and breaststroker Hannah Jarrett are two underclassmen who are expected to deliver points also.

Senior captain and distance swimmer Klein says that their work ethic will pay off.

"We want to do well, especially since it is my last year," Klein said. "We all want to make sure that the winning continues at Texas High. We are all dedicated and willing to put in the hard work to make sure that we do well at this meet and at regionals."

At this point the team is still in max-training mode.

"We will not be tapering at all for the district meet. We will start tapering for the regional and state meets right after the district meet is over," Vogan said.

Saturday's events, at the Texarkana College pool, start at noon with the dive competition featuring Texas High's Robert Bland. Swimming events will begin after the conclusion of the diving competition.

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