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UIL State Finals Saturday

Houston Area Teams Finish Strong

Stratford's Hunter Bayley Takes Gold in the 500 Free

UIL Texas High School State Championship competition kicked off at the UT Swim Center Friday as qualifying swim teams and divers from across the state competed in prelims.

Swimmers were shaved and tapered and the divers were shaking off a few pre-competition nerves. All in all, the level of competition was intense and as Memorial diver Chelsea McCorvey's parents put it, "Although we have been coming for 5+ years, we appreciate being here more each year, the competition keeps getting tougher."

Great showing by senior Kara Cook of the Woodlands who finished 1st in the girls 1 meter diving after 8 dives. Having signed with Purdue University, Kara will be defending her title and seeking another championship tomorrow. Chelsea McCorvey of Memorial finished fourth while Sara Mokhtari of Stratford came in 12th for today.

Saving the most difficult dives for tomorrow, each diver will have three more opportunities to push their scores beyond that of their opponents. The degree of difficulty (DD) and how each is executed tomorrow could rearrange the girl standings and final outcome.

Junior Drew Livingston of the Woodlands finished with a significant lead in the boys competition. Drew executed well today.

When the AC visited with Drew, he shared his goals and dreams of competing in the Pan Am Games this summer. Drew has been club diving for 10 years and has ultimately set his sights on the 2008 Olympics. Competition is nothing new for Drew as he has competed in Germany, Canada & Brazil. Drew stated that he prefers diving at the 10 meter level.

Coach Danny Sautural sees Drew as a capable contender for the Olympics. Coach Sautural stated that we could watch for the greatest degree of difficulty tomorrow from: Drew, Sam Decker of Pearland who finished third today, and the 5th place finisher Tim Lavers of Katy High School, who signed with Texas A & M.

Hudson Rains of Cy-Fair finished today in 6th place while Chris Khosravi of Fort Bend Elkins came in 10th .

While on the swimming deck, the guys and girls were giving it their all.

Hunter Bailey of Stratford won his prelim heat in the 500 yard freestyle leaving the others less than a second behind.

Austin Westlake's Mary Beck broke her own record and the national record in the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 1.57.74.

The Kingwood boys team took 1st in their 200 Medley Relay in their heat, Stephanie Rovig and Jennifer Lamb of Cy-Fair took 2nd and 3rd respectively in their 200 Freestyle heat. Also, Taylor Clark took 1st in the boys 200 Freestyle in his prelim heat.

The scores are wiped away and only the top 8 in each event will to advance to the finals tomorrow. Stay tuned  for the Championship results!!