Frisco Wakeland Wins Boys Texas 5A HS States; State Record, 4 5A Records Fall

by Emma Edmund 19

February 22nd, 2022 High School, News, Records

2022 Texas 5A High School State Championships

  • Friday, February 18-Saturday, February 19, 2022
  • Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center, University of Texas at Austin
  • Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
  • Live Results

Top 10 teams:

  1. Frisco Wakeland: 259.5 points
  2. Georgetown: 171 points
  3. A&M Consolidated: 155 points
  4. Lubbock: 131 points
  5. San Antonio Alamo Heights: 120 points
  6. Magnolia: 102 points
  7. Boerne Champion: 96 points
  8. Angleton: 82 points
  9. Humble Kingwood Park: 79 points
  10. El Paso 75 points

Frisco Wakeland dominated at the UIL 5A Boys High School State Championships, winning the entire meet by over 85 points and defending its title from last year. The school won the meet despite winning no relays and only having one individual event winner.

Over the course of the entire meet, athletes broke one state record and four 5A records.

There were two dual individual event winners during the 5A finals. Texas A&M commit Connor Foote, a senior at San Antonio Alamo Heights, won the 100 fly and 100 back, setting a state record in the 100 fly with his time of 46.09. He lowered his own state record of 46.78, simultaneously lowering his own 5A record. Notably, Foote defeated Conor McKenna, who had won the event the previous two years.

In the 100 back, Foote swam a time of 47.71, and while not enough to knock down the 5A record, it was Foote’s best time. Foote defends his 100 back title from last year.

Georgetown sophomore Jeremy Kelly was the other dual individual event winner of the meet, in the 50 and 500 free. His 50 free time, 20.02, broke the 5A record of 20.08, set by Foote earlier in 2022. Kelly’s 500 free time, 4:23.18, was over a 7-second drop from prelims, and defeated Brayden Seal’s 4:25.71 5A record, set in 2014.

Thomas Wu, a senior at Cedar Park, broke the final 5A record of the meet with his winning 100 breast time of 55.31. He broke the previous record of 55.67, set in 2017 by Hudson Smith. Landon Alarcon, who came in 2nd at 55.60, also would’ve broken the record if not for Wu’s swim.

Senior McKenna, a Princeton commit, was Frisco Wakeland’s only individual event winner, taking gold with a 1:37.92 200 free. McKenna climbed the ranks after finishing 3rd last year in the event.

Other Individual Event Winners:

  • 200 IM: Tony Laurito, sophomore at Friendswood, 1:49.62. Laurito upset last year’s champion, Alarcon, winning the event by .01.
  • 100 free: River Paulk, sophomore at Lubbock, 44.84. Last year’s state champion, Connor Foote, opted to swim two other individual events.
  • 1-meter: Benedict Nguyen, senior at Mansfield Summit, 560.70. Nguyen was just .30 away from the 5A record, which stands at 561.00.

College Station A&M won two of the three relays, the 200 free and 400 free relays. The two relays consisted of the same four boys in the same order: Michael Peng, Carston Johnson, Eric Xiao, and Andrew Larsen.

Winning 200 Free Relay Winning 400 Free Relay
Peng: 20.86 Peng: 45.60
Johnson: 21.34 Johnson: 46.81
Xiao: 21.09 Xiao: 46.24
Larsen: 21.06 Larsen: 45.83
Total: 1:24.35 Total: 3:04.48

Georgetown took home top honors for the 200 medley relay, consisting of Kelly on back (22.43), Alarcon on breast (25.37), Marcus Pineiro on fly (23.16), and Kaden Alarcon on free (21.63). They swam a total time of 1:32.59.

Frisco Wakeland was able to overcome these individual and relay wins from other teams thanks to a huge point dump from McKenna early on and some scorers in A Finals in every event.

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PVSFree
2 years ago

Texas A&M has really put together some good recruiting classes recently, gonna be interesting to watch them in the next couple years

Swimmer
Reply to  PVSFree
2 years ago

Agreed! However, they have yet to show that they can develop some of the top texas recruits well. If you look at all the previous classes from texas, the top recruits that go to UT( Carrozza, Vines, Johnston, Zettle, Park) develop well whereas those who go to A&M don’t develop nearly as well (Bobo, Brown, and even this most recent class of Reno, Kabbara, Hulet). Obviously there are a lot of factors when it comes to choosing a college but A&M has not shown much promise. Hopefully the new classes coming in prove otherwise.

MIKE IN DALLAS
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Truer words were never spake!

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  MIKE IN DALLAS
2 years ago

Incorrect (but then what to expect from a fan of the school in Austin)!!

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  MIKE IN DALLAS
2 years ago

You (& fans like yourself of TU(elitists)) are also ONE of the reasons that I root against that school (& always will)!! It’s not the athletes that go there but the smug fans like yourself that are the problem (HORNS DOWN by the way)👍👍👍

Coach Jason
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Success is comes in many forms but I am proud what we have accomplished in the last five years. We have accomplished the goal of going best times in college, graduating (100%) and serviced this community in an impactful way.

We have developed many Texas kids to All-Americans, SEC Medalists, USA National team members, SEC champions, World Champion, World Medalists, NCAA Champion, Academic All-Americans, A&M Top Senior Engineer and CSCAA Swimmer of the year awards. Our 800 Free relay that got 3rd at NCAAs (3 Houston kids and 1 Mcallen, TX)

In my previous job, I helped develop a swimmer named Caeleb.

I know I am not the best coach, but I will continue to work everyday.

Coach Jason

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  Coach Jason
2 years ago

Thanks for weighing in Coach👍. You & Jay Holmes (along with the rest of the A&M swimming staff) are great coaches and personnel with immense integrity & intensity! I’m grateful that my Grandson (who is mentioned in these comments by the way) has the honor & privilege of being coached by y’all!! Thanks for that from the bottom of my heart (& he has gotten faster under y’all’s tutelage)!! Gig em forever👍👍

Swimmer
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

To begin, the average class size at Texas is one of the largest. They have a wide selection of the top recruits coming for only books. You fail to even consider the athletes that have found success and significant time drops at A&M and the numerous of athletes at Texas that haven’t dropped at all and ridden the bench.

Not every prospect is going to be the next ncaa a finalist. There are huge social, academic, and personal events that could potentially keep athletes from drastically improving.

Bobo and Brown have both dropped significant times in their career at A&M. Bobo went from 1:37 – 1:34 in the two free. Brown went from a 48.0 to a 46.4.… Read more »

sWiMmEr
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Ight dude I broke my foot and couldn’t kick for 2 months so for me to even be near my best times at SECs credits to the coaches for getting me back into it. Don’t go around slandering my class.

5DOLLARMOUSE
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Bobo improved from 1:37-1:34 200 free and Brown from 48.0-46.4 100 fly, aside from the fact that they’re both academic all-Americans. And excluding Johnston, I see a list of seniors being compared to freshmen.

Flake
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Sorry you have something wrong in your life to stoop as low as you did with that take. Focus on yourself and not a bunch of kids that are chasing greatness

Sigma Bolles
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

guess them Texas boys are just ring chasers

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Your opinion only (& that’s about all it is because it’s not true)!!

Nathaniel H
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

As a freshman coming into A&M swimming you’re told to leave the program better than you found it, and the coaches are transparent with the fact that their job is to find someone better than you for when you graduate. Seems to me both parties did their job.. and that you’re so utterly and extremely mad. Blood boilingly angry. Frothing with hate.
-Nate H.

Texas A&M Swim Fan
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

It also appears that you are attempting to dissuade swimmers from attending that fine institution of higher learning that I have 2 engineering degrees from☹️. You seemed to probably purposefully forget that Shaine Casas swam for A&M & WAS DEVELOPED there with that coaching staff & associates as well (he dropped significant time while there too). I could give you an example of a guy who was 6’10” tall that went to TU & didn’t develop (get faster) there. And I’m sure he’s not the only one! The only thanks I’ll give you is mentioning that my Grandson was a top recruit coming from Texas.

Last edited 2 years ago by Texas A&M Swim Fan
Colonel Sanders
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

I make excellent fried chicken for the A&M swim team. I don’t make excellent fried chicken for the UT swim team !

Anonymous
Reply to  PVSFree
2 years ago

2023 class includes a 53.3 100 breastroker, sub 20 and 44 sprinter, sub 3:50 400 IM, and a handful of sub 1:50 200 IM with brown being at 1:45 low. I would say A&M is definitely doing something right by pulling in these kids.

Last edited 2 years ago by Anonymous
Joe
2 years ago

who swims the 50 and 500 at the same meet haha? what a boss

Drewbrewsbeer
Reply to  Joe
2 years ago

I think the meet where Jack Conger broke Kostoff’s 500 HS record he split 20 something on the fly in the MR.