After winning the 100 yard freestyle, Mustang senior Matt Barber acknowledges a close race with a hand shake for his Southlake Carroll opponent.

The Friday Night Lights were not just on for football last week. The Kingwood High School natatorium was a glow on Nov. 6 as the varsity swimming and diving team hosted the Atascocita Eagles and the Southlake Carroll Dragons from Dallas, one of the top eight teams at 5A state last year.

While the Dragons put up a good fight, the Mustangs prevailed, winning both the girls and boys match ups. The Kingwood relays were a big factor. The girls won all three relays, starting with the 200 yard medley relay team of Jillian Vitarius, Michelle Gean, Sydney Conroy and Jamie Friderichs. Contributors in the winning girls freestyle relays were: Leah Pfitzer, Shannen Wehrman, Madeline Hazle, Friderichs, Cami Luhrs, Lisa Swank and Lauren Day.

The boys took first and second in their medley relay. The winning A team was Ryan Glander, Joseph Bergmeister, Matt Barber and Patrick Pash followed by the B Team consisting of Thomas Corey, Reed Dalton, Steve Ciliske and Brian Li. Kingwood also won the 400 freestyle relay with Jordan Jones, Will Oswald, Glander and Barber.

In the girls’ individual races, Vitarius once again won both the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke. Teammate Katheryn Nolan was third in the 200 free. Madeline Hazle, just back from swimming at the Olympic Training Center, easily won the 200 yard individual medley and the 500 yard freestyle. In the 50 yard freestyle, Leah Pfitzer out touched Friderichs for first place. Conroy won the 100 yard butterfly in 58.89 just off of freshman record time with Pfitzer taking second. Friderichs and Gean swam a close 100 yard freestyle race to come in second and third, respectively. Gean also was second in the 100 yard breaststroke.

The boys’ races saw some repeat match ups from last year’s state championships. Jones swam against two competitors he last saw at state. He narrowly won the 200 yard IM in a stroke-for-stroke battle with Southlake’s Connor Nolan. He followed that with a more decisive win in the 500 yard freestyle – three seconds ahead of Southlake’s Ted Singley. Mustang Ryan Glander took second to Singley by one-tenth of a second in a heart-stopping 200 yard freestyle race. Glander went on to win the 100 yard backstroke race by a two second margin. Barber also had to fend off a Dragon: just winning the 100 yard freestyle by four tenths of a second. Ciliske settled for second place in two tight races: the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard butterfly. Pash won the 100 yard breaststroke in a photo-finish where the top five swimmers were less than a second apart.

For complete meet results, visit www.humbleisd.net/khsswim The Mustang varsity and JV swimmers will team up to travel to their next meet at Katy-Taylor High School on Thursday at 5 p.m.