Mustang junior Danielle Meara surges to a first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Early Bird Invitational on Oct. 24.

The Kingwood High School varsity swimmers and divers beat twelve Houston-area teams to win the Early Bird Invitational at Atascocita High School on Oct. 24th. The Mustangs placed first in the girls, boys and combined team scores followed by Klein High School in second for each category.

Kingwood Head Coach Russell Duin was happy with the first meet of the season, which included breaking six Atascocita pool records.

“They did a great job for early in the year,” said Duin. “They showed that there is potential for great things to happen later on and that we still have a lot of work to do. We need to keep our goals in mind.”

One of those goals is a repeat of the boys’ 5A state championship. The Mustang boys return four members of the 2009 state championship squad: Ryan Glander, Jordan Jones, Will Oswald and Steve Ciliske. Also returning to the team is senior All-America swimmer Matt Barber after a year hiatus.

Barber was a clear winner in both of his individual events. He took firsts in the 200 and 500 yard freestyle and anchored the winning 400 yard freestyle relay. Joining him on the relay were Jones, Oswald and Glander. Together they clocked a 3:13.51 – over six seconds ahead of the next closest team and setting a new pool record.

Jones also earned two firsts in individual events: the 50 and 100 yard freestyle. Other Kingwood boys winning individual events were sophomore Reed Dalton in the 200 yard individual medley, senior Glander in the 100 yard backstroke, and junior Patrick Pash in the 100 yard breaststroke.

A season goal for the Kingwood girls is to better last year’s third place finish at state. Some new freshmen talent should help with that goal.

Madeline Hazle swam 5:05.23 in the 500 yard freestyle to break the team’s freshman record which had stood since 1993. Hazle also took second place for the girls in a tight 200 yard IM race. The closest race of the meet, however, was a battle between two Kingwood freshman girls. Leah Pfitzer broke a minute in the 100 yard butterfly to out-touch Sydney Conroy by .03 seconds.

Freshmen also contributed to the Kingwood girls winning relays. Conroy teamed up with Vitarius, Danielle Meara and Jamie Friderichs to win the 200 yard medley relay. Freshmen Pfitzer and Hazle were members of the winning 200 yard freestyle relay team along with upper classmen Lisa Swank and Friderichs. The freshman pair teamed up again, this time with Cami Luhrs and Vitarius, to also win the 400 yard freestyle relay.
                                                       
The Mustang girls took first place in several other individual events. As reigning state champ in the 100-yard backstroke, Vitarius easily won the event and the 200 yard freestyle as well. Meara had an exciting come-from-behind finish to win the 100 yard breaststroke and sophomore Malaney Peete was the top girls’ diver at the meet. For complete meet results, visit www.humbleisd.net/khsswim.com

The Mustang swimmers are now preparing for a tri-meet with the Atascocita Eagles and perennial state powerhouse Southlake Carroll on Friday at 5 p.m. at Kingwood High School.