Although summer may be winding down, summer swimming is picking up speed. The 2007 Texas Age Group Swimming Long Course Championships (TAGS) took place last week at the University of Texas’ Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center.

With over 40 teams present the qualifying swimmers represented swim clubs from all over Texas. Each team was introduced during the opening ceremonies on Friday where the teams carried banners and flags to show who they were swimming for.

The swimmers dived right into the competition as the preliminaries and finals showed what real speed looked liked and how proper form and technique would place you at the top of the podium.

Meet Director Rhonda Dirvin, “The meet went very well, there was a national record broken by the boys 13-14 age group in the 800 free relay. The competition is very intense and there were some close exciting races.”

With the swimmers competing for individual, relay, team, and high point awards each event counted towards an ending point total. The overall combined team winner was The Woodlands Swim Club with 935 points, Long Horn Aquatics took second, followed by City of Plano Swimmers Inc., Cy-Fair Swim Club, and First Colony Swim Team.

First Colony swim coach Michael Wilson, “competitive swimming is great for conditioning and it helps the swimmers when they get back to their school teams.”

The dedicated swimmers who compete in TAGS and other summer programs are giving themselves the necessary practice to hone their skills and become leaders in the swim world.

“I think summer swimming keeps the kids occupied in a productive manner and gives them a chance to really excel at a sport,” explained Dirvin.

For complete results from TAGS go to

http://www.utexas.edu/longhornaquatics/meets/.

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