Zaryna Wardlay Moves Into Top 25 All-Time in 11-12 Age Group; Cub Stickels Breaks Through

2025 North Texas Long Course Age Group Championships

• June 27-29, 2025
• Mansfield ISD Debbie Weems Natatorium, Mansfield, Teas
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Results (PDF)

The best 14 & unders in North Texas came together at the Weems Natatorium over the weekend to crown LSC Champions.

That included a 10-win weekend from Metroplex Aquatics’ Zaryna Wardlay, and a breakthrough meet from Cub Stickels, the son of famous swim coach Coley Stickels.

Wardlay had six individual wins in seven entries in the girls’ 11-12 age group, including new best times in the 100 free (58.75), 50 back (30.95), 100 back (1:07.96), 200 back (2:27.25), and 50 fly (28.44 in prelims). She also swam on four winning relays.

That time in the 100 free jumps her to 22nd all-time in the 11-12 age group.

Erica Wang of the Lakeside Aquatic Club did her one better, winning seven individual events in the 10 & under age group, though she had no relay wins. She won at distances from 50 meters to 400 meters, including standout times of 37.53 in the 50 breaststroke and 2:40.28 in the 200 IM. That 200 IM time was an improvement of nearly nine seconds over her lifetime best.

On the boys’ side, among the standouts was 11-year-old Cub Stickels, who swept the backstrokes in the 11-12 age group in spite of being on the younger end of the age group.

He swam 33.16 in the 50 back, 1:11.63 in the 100 back, and 2:32.42 in the 200 back. That 200 back time was an eight-second improvement. Those swims all rank him among the top 11 of swimmers his age this season in the U.S. That includes #2 in the 200 back, about two seconds behind the national leader Alexey Zaitev of BeFirst Swim Team in New York (2:30.50).

Cub is the son of former University of Alabama head swim coach, and current Texas Ford Aquatics high performance coach, Coley Stickels.

Among the other top performers in the meet on the boys’ side was Marek Shepko, who won seven races in the 10 & under age group, including a 1:05.65 in the 100 free to knock nearly two seconds off his previous best. He also flexed his range by winning the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, and 400 free individually: all of the freestyle distances available at this meet.