Swimming: OHS girls have better outlook for 3-5A meet

As Odessa High School’s boys made program history a year ago by tying for the team title in the District 3-5A Swimming and Diving Championships, fortunes weren’t so good for the OHS girls.

More precisely, the Lady Bronchos finished firmly last in the district team standings with just 11 points — 19 behind sixth-place Permian and 82 behind champion San Angelo Central.

There’s every indication, however, that the OHS girls will show today and Saturday just how much difference a year can make.

The 2008 District 3-5A Swimming and Diving Championships begin at 4 p.m. today at McMurry University in Abilene with preliminaries. Finals are scheduled for noon Saturday, with the top six qualifiers in each individual race qualifying for the Region I-5A Championships.

It will be a surprise if the OHS girls don’t figure in at least a handful of the races with two No. 1 seeds and three No. 2 seeds out of the 11 swimming events.

“I’m very glad that we finally have got things going well for them,” OHS head coach Sarah Floyd said. “There’s some depth there now and they’ve done really well all year. I’m excited for them going into this meet.”

One factor has been the immediate impact of freshman Ashley Helferich, who is the No. 1 seed in the 100 butterfly and No. 2 seed for the 200 freestyle going into her first district meet.

But Floyd also said the efforts put into the program over the years by juniors Molly Jordan and Rebecca Saldana and sophomore Leigh Maberry also are paying off.

Maberry is the No. 2 seed in the 100 freestyle, Jordan is seeded fourth in the 100 backstroke and Saldana joins the other three swimmers on the top-seeded 200 freestyle relay.

Odessa High’s boys also should make a pretty big splash, just as they’ve done the last few years on the district scene.

Five OHS boys entries are No. 1 seeds out of the 11 swimming events — junior Madison Gibson in both the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley; senior Josh Clark in the 50 freestyle; junior Kaylm Haechten in the 100 breaststroke; and those three swimmers paired with senior Blake Barner in the 200 medley relay.

The Bronchos will have to max out on points and performances to even think about challenging for the district title again, but their quality should keep them around the top of the team standings.

“It has become a tradition, which is good,” Floyd said of Odessa High’s high expectations for the district meet. “Central always is real strong and it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out on both sides. It should be a really good meet.”

Permian’s girls will be led by junior Albany Hawkins, who is seeded fourth in both the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle. She was a regional finalist in the 500 free last year.

Allison Easlon is the top-seeded Permian girls swimmer, taking a No. 3 ranking into the meet in the 100 breaststroke.

For the Permian boys, Don Payne is the No. 3 seed in the 500 freestyle while Dylan Ramon and Tyler Pyle are the Nos. 3-4 seeds in the 100 breaststroke.

Around the district, the defending event champions are back in every non-relay girls race except the 100 butterfly. On the boys side, however, the only returning event champion is Odessa High’s Gibson in the 100 fly — he later finished second in the event at the UIL State Championships.