Lamar Swimmers Shine At Regionals, Several Earn Trip To State

HOUSTON, TX — Lamar senior Ridge Livermore qualified for the state swimming and diving meet in four different events while senior Carlon McClerkin qualified in three. The freestyle specialists helped power the Texans boys team to a fourth-place finish in the Class 6A Region IV Swimming and Diving Meet last Saturday at Conroe ISD Natatorium.

Lamar scored 202 points to finish behind region champion The Woodlands (473), runner-up Klein Oak (274) and third-place Klein (220).

Livermore finished second in the 200-yard freestyle last weekend to earn an automatic berth to the state meet, which will be Feb. 16-17 in Austin. Livermore's time of 1 minute, 39.34 seconds set a new Lamar varsity boys record. Livermore jumped out with a blistering pace of 23.40 seconds and then hit splits of 25.68 and 25.54 before kicking in a 24.72 final leg to set the school record.

The top two finishers in each race earn an automatic berth in the state meet, so with eight regions there are 16 automatic state qualifiers in each race. Then, the next eight-fastest times in Texas qualify for state, and that's how Livermore qualified in the 500-yard freestyle.

Livermore, the District 16-6A Swimmer of the Year, finished fifth with a time of 4:33.69, but it was fast enough to make it to Austin in this race. (Note: It just shows how good this region is).

McClerkin swam the 100-yard freestyle in 46.92 seconds, which was fifth place in regionals but fast enough to get him to Austin.

McClerkin and Livermore were also part of the 4x50 medley relay and 4x100 freestyle relay teams that qualified for state.

The 4x50 medley relay placed fourth with a 1:36.48 showing. Jeff "Scoot" deGroot led off in the backstroke, followed by Hank Huelskamp in the breaststroke, Livermore in the butterfly and McClerkin with the freestyle anchor leg.

After finishing second in the preliminaries, the 4x100 freestyle finished third in the championship finals, touching in 3:07.95 to set a new school record. Livermore paced the way with a starting split of 45.98, followed by deGroot, Javi Hernandez and McClerkin.

The Lamar girls team finished eighth with 141 points. The Woodlands won the girls division with 524 points. No girls swimmers qualified for state.

The state meet will be Feb. 16-17 at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim center on the campus of the University of Texas.

Other notable feats by Lamar swimmers and divers at the regional meet:

• Rachel Marsh's 2:12.53 in the girls 200 IM prelims was the seventh-fastest time in school history. She finished 10th overall.
• Carlon McClerkin's 21.51 in the 50-yard freestyle placed him seventh in the race, but sixth all-time in school history.
• Jeff deGroot's 1:44.02 in the 200 freestyle consolation final is fourth all-time in school history.
• Emma Krug's 58.75 in the gils 100-yard butterfly prelims is sixth all-time in school history. She finished fifth in the championship finals.
• Javi Hernandez's 52.57 in the boys 100-yard butterfly is eighth all-time in school history. He finished ninth.
• Megan Lewis' 5:18.77 in the 500-freestyle prelims is eighth all-time in school history.
• McClerkin's 46.76 in the 100 free prelims is fourth all-time in school history.
• Xonzy Gaddis' 1:09.43 in the girls 100-yard breaststroke consolation final is eighth all-time in school history.
• Emma Krug's 1:00.75 in the 100-yard backstroke prelims is seventh all-time in school history.
• Avery Somma tallied 326.25 to place 10th in girls diving. Allison Bean was 14th and Lily Abbott 16th.
• Josh Bowering placed 12th in boys diving.

Photos by Brian Baird