The Summer Games of Texas is run by the Texas Amateur Athletics Federation (TAAF), and is dedicated to allow true amateur athletes compete for the title of best summer league swimmers in the state of Texas. In the youth age groups, there are certain rules in place to ensure that the meet is limited to true recreational swimmers, and the meet basically amounts to a summer league state championship meet. In the youth age groups, swimmers qualify by competing at one of the regional meets around Texas. The top two swimmers or relays from each region in each event go to the state meet, which means that just making the state meet is an impressive accomplishment.

The 2009 Summer Games of Texas Swim Meet took place at the Josh Davis Natatorium in San Antonio, Texas. While the over 100 degree temperature was heating up the natatorium, the swimming was heating up the water, with an astonishing 30 state records being broken. 25 of these records came in the 18&over age groups, showing that the State Games are gaining steam as a popular Masters’ meet.

On Saturday afternoon, there was definitely a Mean Green tint in the pool when every single 18-24 women’s record was broken by members of the University of North Texas swim team. Seabre Pope of Granbury showed her prowess in the sprint events, breaking the 18-24 records in the 50 freestyle (24.92), 50 backstroke (29.32), and 50 butterfly (33.64) events. The women from Richmond and Rosenberg (R&R Aquatics) took care of the rest of the 18-24 records. Emily Floyd, bettered her own records in the 100 and 200 freestyles (55.15 and 2:01.36); Morgan Morrow took the 100 IM mark (1:04.19); and the relay combination of Laura Littleton, Floyd, Morrow, and Marissa Gale set both the 200 Medley (1:58.56) and Freestyle (1:44.87) Relay records. Out of these 5 record breakers, all but Gale swim at UNT.

Later on in the session, Susan Matheme of the South Belt Area Swim Team in Houston broke 3 records in 3 individual swims in the 40&over age group: 50 freestyle (25.53), 100 freestyle (55.05), and 50 butterfly (28.57). Matheme and her husband are known in the Houston area as the owners of the Texas Swim Shop, and she trains with the Rice Aquatics Masters Team.

The Men’s 18-24 age group was a show down between seasoned TAAF veterans and newcomers to the event. Joshua Pena (Frisco), Zach Interrante (Cleburne), and Forrest Hughes (Freeport), were all event champions at the 2008 State meet, while a group of first time participants from the West Houston Aquatics League (WHALE) announced their presence as a new force. Though the WHALE team experienced a lot of success in the 18-24 age group at the 2008 meet, this year’s group was comprised entirely of swimmers who were new to TAAF.

In the first event of the Saturday morning session, a WHALE group of Jason Roberson, Ryan Rucker, Braden Keith, and Brad Roberson set a new meet record in the Medley Relay (1:41.04), holding off the top seeded R&R Aquatics, third seeded R&R Aquatics-B, and Frisco relays. The Whale team never trailed in the race.

All three individual freestyle events saw multiple swimmers break the record. In the 50, Interrante touched in 21.36, just beating out Hughes who finished with a 21.46. In the 100, Interrante again pulled out the win (46.70), albeit this time by a much larger margin, ahead of second place Pena (48.24), the former record holder, and third place Hughes (48.51). Interrante will be a freshman at Henderson State University in Arkansas in the fall.

It seems that many swimmers had the same idea of trying to steal a medal in the 200 free, which last year had only 3 competitors. This year, 13 competitors swam the event, and all 3 medalists, Matt Tomas (R&R, 1:51.06)), Matt Garza (Alice, 1:57.16), and Jimmy Rodriguez (WHALE, 1:59.35) broke the record.

Interrante broke 2 more records in his other 2 individual events, bringing his record and gold medal total to 4. His win in the 100 Individual Medley (53.11) eclipsed a 10-year old record, and finishing second was Rucker of Whale (55.80). In the 50 yard backstroke, there was some confusion as to who was the champion, as Interrante’s time did not register in the computer, but 30 minutes and 4 edits later, Interrante (25.05) was named the winner over (Jason) Roberson (25.21), also of WHALE. Roberson swam in each of the first 3 events of the meet, and this appeared to take a toll on him physically, as his individual backstroke time was nearly a full second slower than the time that he lead off the Medley Relay with. Pena, after losing his record in the 100 free, claimed the title and a record in the 50 breaststroke (27.74), followed again by Rucker (28.69).

This all set up a show down in the 200 free relay. R&R seemed bent on avenging their loss in the Medley Relay, and returned three of the four legs from their record-setting 2008 relay. Pena’s Frisco Relay, which was second in the medley, also sought the victory. In the end, the WHALE team showed their depth by breaking the record by a second and a half (1:29.74) after swapping out 2 legs from the Medley Relay. The members of the winning freestyle relay were (Jason) Roberson, Paul Welge, Rodriguez, and (Brad Roberson). (Jason) Roberson’s leadoff time of 20.82 would have been fast enough to win the individual 50 by half of a second. R&R, despite lowering their time from last year, still came up short in 1:31.10 behind WHALE’s 1:29.74. Pena and his Frisco Relay were third in 1:33.54.

The other notable performer of the Masters age groups was Steve Wood from Weatherford, who annihilated 4 records in the 40&up age group. Wood smashed the TAAF records in the 50 (22.50) and 100 (50.04) freestyles, 50 butterfly (24.79), and 50 backstroke (25.36). Wood, who swam at Auburn University in the 70’s, is also the World Record holder for the 45-49 age group in the 50m and 100m backstrokes.

The younger age groups saw plenty of fast swimming too. In the 8&under girl’s division, there were two double gold medalists. Alexandra Russell of West Houston Aquatics (WHALE) was the champion in the 25 freestyle (15.40) and 25 butterfly (16.31) events. In the butterfly, Russell trailed Zoe Gawronska of the Woodlands through the first 14 yards, but when Gawronska took a big breath, Russell zoomed past her and didn’t look back. Russell also earned a bronze medal in the Medley Relay (1:22.16) with teammates Karlye Little, Garbriela Walter, and Rebecca Reitsma. The other double gold medalist of the group was Cailyn McComb of El Campo. She won the 50 freestyle (33.91) and 25 breastroke, where she flirted with a State record and eventually touched just short in 20.06. McComb also earned a bronze in the 25 freestyle (15.64).

The Frisco team were the dominant boys in the 8&under age group. They won 4 out of the 8 events, including Jake Walsh in the 25 free (15.37), David Johnston took the IM in record speed (1:24.97), slicing almost 4 seconds off of the previous record. Frisco also won both the medley and freestyle relays. Jacob Helzer of Denton also pulled off a double victory, winning the 50 freestyle (35.87) and 25 butterfly (17.73). Matthew Chao of Southlake also chopped three-and-a-half seconds off of the IM record in a second place effort.

In the 9-10 girls group, Hope Williams of El Campo struck gold twice, in the 25 breaststroke (18.60) and 100 IM (1:17.68). Williams did not participate in the El Campo relays, leaving the door open for the group from Lake Jackson, featuring 25 backstroke winner (15.99) Nicole Nguyen, to win both relays. Joining Nguyen in the freestyle relay were Kaitlyn Housenga, Melanie Housenga, and Katie Turk. In the Medley, it was again Nguyen, the Housegna sisters, with Caroline Heins stepping in to swim the breaststroke leg.

In the 11-12 and 13-14 age groups, there was a very fast event turnaround, due to the relatively small number of heats, and no breaks for timers to switch ends between 25 and 50 yard events. This made for 3 very impressive performances by swimmers who showed great fortitude by swimming back-to-back events where they went from block to ready bench to block, usually in fewer than 10 minutes. In the 13-14 girls age group, Tori Fryar of Denison pulled off the freestyle double. She won the 50 freestyle by over a second (26.51) and came right back to win the 100 freestyle by 3 seconds (57.75). Fryar is on the younger half of the age group, and thus will be able to come back and defend her title in Waco in 2010, and seems primed to challenge the records in both events. Immediately after the 50 freestyle, Fryar also tied for second in the 50 backstroke (30.72) with Amelia Rosenberger of Weatherford. Kari Wilkins of El Campo won the backstroke in 30.52.

Nicholas Martinez in the 11-12 Boys age group swam the 50 butterfly and came in second (29.38) behind William Smith of Navasota, who broke a 12-year old state record in a time of 27.86. Martinez then came back less than 10 minutes later to win the grueling 100IM in 1:11.25.

In the 11-12 Girls age group, Abby Gardea of Deer Park came out with a bang and won the first two events: the 50 freestyle (26.85) and 50 backstroke (31.80). After a brief rest, Gardea won the 100 freestyle in 58.47.

In the 13-14 Boys age group, a pair of swimmers from Southlake won 6 out of the 7 individual events in a dominating performance. Jake Tovey won the 50 freestyle (24.29), 50 backstroke (27.93) and 100 IM (1:00.48). His teammate John Remetta won the 200 freestyle (1:57.49), 50 breaststroke (30.60), and butterfly (26.78). Tovey’s IM swim just barely edged out the record previously held by Daniel Karkoska of Bryan.

Ryan Wilcox of the Tuloso-Midway Hurricanes walked away from the 15-17 Men’s meet with an impressive display of hardware. He won the 50 freestyle (21.84) and 50 backstroke, the latter in a meet record of 25.69. After finishing a disappointing second in the 50 butterfly, an event where he was the top seed, Wilcox finished the meet strong by bettering his own record in the 100 IM in a time of 54.61.

In a wide open 15-17 Women’s division, there was only one multiple gold medalist. Krystan Morrell of the Golden Triangle won both the 50 freestyle (25.48) and 100 freestyle (57.14). The medley relay was one of the more exciting events of the night, with the squads from Frisco, Golden Triangle, and R&R, all finishing within one second of each other. In the end, the Frisco team of Shannon Brown, Cambria Pena, Kelsey Emmons, and Shelby Little won in 2:04.09. R&R came in second and Golden Triangle came in third.

All in all, it was a great weekend in San Antonio, with lots of fun and fast swimming. With 30 records being broken this year, one can only wonder what will happen in Waco in 2010.

Medalists from the 2009 and 2010 SGOT are eligible to swim at the State Games of America competition in 2011 in San Diego.