GIRLS SWIMMING AND DIVING: Drennan following in sister's footsteps as Greenwood pacesetter

PECOS Quality is more important than quantity, at least for Greenwood’s swimming and diving program.

In each of the last four years it consisted of one person, Jocelin Drennan, who won seven district championships and seven regional titles and is now a freshman swimmer at the University of Nevada.

This year, Drennan’s younger sister is carrying the torch for Greenwood. Alyson Drennan is a freshman for the Rangerettes, and just like her older sister, she’s a one-woman team.

“It’s kind of lonely, because you don’t have any teammates,” Alyson Drennan said. “But all of the other teams have kind of taken me in. It’s kind of like I have one big team.”

Greenwood doesn’t have a high school swimming coach — football coach and athletic director Shad Hanna serves in that capacity, officially — but that hasn’t kept either Drennan from swimming success. In fact, the younger Drennan picked up right where the older one left off Saturday in the District 4-4A Swimming & Diving Championships at the Pecos Natatorium.

Alyson Drennan swept the girls sprint races in dominant fashion. She won the 50-yard freestyle by 1.22 seconds and the 100 freestyle by 1.46 seconds, a performance that earned her the Athlete of the Meet award and made her the likely favorite in the Region I-4A competition on Feb. 10-11 in Andrews.

“It makes me feel good,” said Drennan, who swims for the City of Midland club team. “I trained really hard the last, like, four months, and then I got to come here and show it.”

Drennan wasn’t the only 4-4A swimmer to become a district champion at her first district meet. Andrews freshman Taryn Willis won the 100 backstroke by posting a personal-best time for the second day in a row.

Willis swam the event in 1 minute, 13.45 seconds in Friday’s preliminaries — which was 1.54 seconds slower than the time of Pecos’ Amber Campos — but Willis posted a time of 1:11.33 on Saturday to beat Campos by nearly one second.

“I just put my whole heart in it,” Willis said. “I really wanted it.”

Sophomore Tish Walling had the other victory for the Andrews girls team, winning Friday’s 1-meter diving competition in record fashion. Her score of 375.40 points shattered her own meet record by more than 70 points, and Andrews coach Mike Waldmann also said it was good enough for all-America consideration.

Two Pecos seniors won two events apiece Saturday. Lauren Elliott defended her district titles in the 200 and 500 freestyle races, and Alexcia Mendoza completed a four-peat in the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly races.

Mendoza said her times of 2:26.36 in the IM and 1:05.91 in the butterfly were her best times of the season, and her winning margins were 12 seconds in the first race and nearly seven in the second.

“It feels pretty good,” Mendoza said. “I’ve worked all my life for today, and in two more weeks for regionals. It feels good to know that hard work has really paid off for me.”

Despite the four victories by Elliott and Mendoza, and a win in the 400 freestyle relay, the Pecos girls fell short of winning their sixth straight team title. That honor went to Monahans, which used superior depth to capture its first team district championship since 2000.

The Lady Loboes, whose only individual win came from sophomore Katy Butler in the 100 breaststroke, won the first two relay races. They also racked up 20 top-five finishes in the eight individual swimming events.

“It’s awesome, because it’s been a long time since we won,” said Monahans coach Jay Thomas, whose team includes his daughters, Brittany and Jayde. “And it’s pretty special because most of those girls, I’ve probably been working with them since the third grade. I had them in swim club.”

Butler said Thomas gave the Lady Loboes some extra encouragement right before the meet. Afterward, Thomas’ swimmers gave him the customary push into the pool.

“Before we started, he put us all into the locker room and told us that he was going to be so proud of us if we win and that we should get this,” Butler said. “He was so proud of us he wanted to cry.”

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>> District 4-4A Championships

Friday-Saturday, Pecos Natatorium

All events in yards

(Top six in each event
advance to Region I-4A meet)

GIRLS

Team Standings

1. Monahans, 166; 2. Pecos, 130; 3. Andrews, 111; 4. Big Spring, 33; 5. Fort Stockton, 32; 6. Greenwood, 18.

Individual Events

200 medley relay

1. Monahans (Ashton Scott, Katy Butler, Haley Popham, Jayde Thomas), 2:04.97; 2. Andrews, 2:05.32; 3. Pecos, 2:24.74; 4. Big Spring, 2:49.15.

200 freestyle

1. Lauren Elliott, Pecos, 2:17.43; 2. Lauren Green, Monahans, 2:18.42; 3. Dana Conger, Pecos, 2:22.96; 4. Kara Doege, Monahans, 2:23.28; 5. Melanie Pogue, Monahans, 2:25.03; 6. Monica Miranda, Andrews, 2:29.39.

200 individual medley

1. Alexcia Mendoza, Pecos, 2:26.63; 2. Taryn Willis, Andrews, 2:38.63; 3. Zandria Rodriguez, Monahans, 2:40.08; 4. Samantha Harp, Monahans, 2:44.31; 5. Haley Popham, Monahans, 2:44.58; 6. Natalie Duzan, Andrews, 2:47.80.

50 freestyle

1. Alyson Drennan, Greenwood, 26.13; 2. Jayde Thomas, Monahans, 27.35; 3. Morgan Rowland, Andrews, 27.40; 4. Amber Campos, Pecos, 28.50; 5. Jordan Grant, Monahans, 28.79; 6. Adriannah Lujan, Fort Stockton, 29.74.

1-meter diving

1. Tish Walling, Andrews, 375.40 (new meet record); 2. Harlee Lozano, Pecos, 248.25.

100 butterfly

1. Alexcia Mendoza, Pecos, 1:05.91; 2. Adriannah Lujan, Fort Stockton, 1:12.60; 3. Zandria Rodriguez, Monahans, 1:13.75; 4. Tish Walling, Andrews, 1:14.57; 5. Rayann Box, Pecos, 1:19.78; 6. Haley Popham, Monahans, 1:20.75.

100 freestyle

1. Alyson Drennan, Greenwood, 58.07; 2. Morgan Rowland, Andrews, 59.53; 3. Jayde Thomas, Monahans, 1:01.45; 4. Lauren Green, Monahans, 1:02.80; 5. Jordan Grant, Monahans, 1:05.76; 6. Kelsey Thomas, Fort Stockton, 1:08.19.

500 freestyle

1. Lauren Elliott, Pecos, 6:02.38; 2. Dana Conger, Pecos, 6:29.15; 3. Melanie Pogue, Monahans, 6:31.35; 4. Kara Doege, Monahans, 6:39.92; 5. Kassandra Mendoza, Pecos, 6:57.15; 6. Sammi Heredia, Andrews, 7:17.77.

200 freestyle relay

1. Monahans (Jordan Grant, Lauren Green, Zandria Rodriguez, Jayde Thomas), 1:51.72; 2. Pecos, 1:53.36; 3. Andrews, 1:57.95; 4. Big Spring, 2:09.55; 5. Fort Stockton, 2:10.54.

100 backstroke

1. Taryn Willis, Andrews, 1:11.33; 2. Amber Campos, Pecos, 1:12.30; 3. Ashton Scott, Monahans, 1:12.40; 4. Samantha Harp, Monahans, 1:16.65; 5. Rayann Box, Pecos, 1:18.03; 6. Katherine Smith, Andrews, 1:19.74.

100 breaststroke

1. Katy Butler, Monahans, 1:15.02; 2. Natalie Duzan, Andrews, 1:18.53; 3. Kelly McDaniel, Monahans, 1:21.81; 4. Ashton Curlee, Monahans, 1:23.01; 5. Brittany Thomas, Monahans, 1:23.22; 6. Haylee Haynes, Andrews, 1:26.38.

400 freestyle relay

1. Pecos (Dana Conger, Amber Campos, Alexcia Mendoza, Lauren Elliott), 4:09.19; 2. Monahans, 4:15.37; 3. Andrews, 4:39.94; 4. Fort Stockton, 4:42.06; 5. Big Spring, 4:51.74.