Johnson's Brianna Higgins, Taylor Silvestry, Riley Marks and Raquel Grays show off their gold medals from the 200 yard Freestyle Relay at the Region VII Swim Meet

The Johnson Jaguars swim and dive team participated in the Region VII swim meet finals on Saturday and came away with it’s biggest medal haul in the history of the program. With senior Riley Marks leading the way the Jags will be sending a relay team and Marks in two individual events to Austin for the State meet.

Several Johnson swimmers will be watching for the UIL call-ups to the State meet as they posted favorable times in several events.

The State Swim Meet might be the hardest UIL event to get into. Only the 1st place champion in each event from the eight regions is guaranteed a spot at the State meet. This makes for some very exciting and competitive racing across the State of Texas at the Regional Meets.

After the eight regional champions in each event are in the top eight times in each event are then called up to the State meet making a field a 16 swimmers in each event. Last year Johnson received it’s first ever call up as the girls 200 freestyle team posted one of the top times in the State in 2011 Region meets.

GIRLS VARSITY SWIM
The Varsity girls finished in 4th place in the region their best finish at the Region VII swim meet. Leading the way was Marks.

Marks picked up Johnson’s first State invite when she won the 200 yard IM with a time of 2:04.55. Marks held off a hard charging Reagan swimmer to win by .21 and post Johnson’s first ever IM champion.

Marks was far from done as she would swim in the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team with Brianna Higgins, Taylor Silvestry and Raquel Grays and unlike 2011 the Johnson 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team will not need a call up as they won the event with a time of 1:36.41. Higgins swam an incredible anchor leg to beat the Reagan team by .18. The 1:36.41 set a new Johnson record.

Marks would return for the 100 yard backstroke to defend her 2011 title in the same event. Marks who placed 3rd a week earlier in the district backstroke destroyed the Region VII field winning by over 2 seconds with a Johnson record 56.16. It was Marks third gold medal of the day and her third State Qualifier.

Marks would pick up a silver in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay with the same foursome as the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay in a new school record of 3:32.00. The 400 Freestyle Relay will have to wait and see if their time is good enough for the call-up list.

Also holding to see if her times are good enough to make the call-ups is Grays. Grays sprinted to a Johnson record in the 50 Freestyle at 23.87 for a silver in the event. She also posted a 51.41 (another school record) in the 100 yard Freestyle good enough for 3rd and a possible call-up.

Silvestry also broke her own one day old 200 Yard Freestyle Johnson record with a 1:55.25 as she place 4th in the event.

BOYS VARSITY SWIM
Like the girls the Johnson boys placed 4th as a team their best finish in the history of CTJ aquatics.

Last year Johnson sent their first individual boy swimmer to the State Meet when Reid McCorkle won the 100 yard backstroke. This year the jags will have to wait and see if they will qualify through the State wide call-ups.

McCorkle lowered the school record time in the 100 backstroke but could not track-down the front runner posting a 52.85 and taking home silver. Nicolas Guillen also will have a good shot at the call-up list as he placed second in the 100 yard breast-stroke with a 57.97.

Two boys relay teams will also be checking the UIL website for the call ups. The 200 Yard Medley Relay team of McCorkle, Guillen, Andrew Kehrberg and Josh Morgan posted a new school record of 1:37.43 in the event and placed 3rd overall. Their time was only .03 behind Brandeis in 2nd.

The 200 yard freestyle relay team of Guillen, Morgan, Cameron Wickes and Michael Sweeney also took third place with a new school record of 1:28.00 a good 1.54 seconds in front of Reagan.

Morgan also lowered the 100 yard freestyle recrod time for Johnson with a 48.34 and took 5th place.

Photos From All Three Days of the Region VII Swim Meet can be found on the Jaguar Pride Photography Website

Go Jags!!