State swim meet begins in Sulphur

• By ROBIN FAMBROUGH
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 18, 2009 - Page: 3C

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

When he met with his team on Tuesday, University High swim coach Jason Lewis reminded everyone about packing clothes and equipment.

Lewis also told the Cubs they need to smile at today’s State Farm/Louisiana High School Athletic Association State Swim Meet.

“All the months of hard work are over now,” Lewis said. “All that’s left now is to go out and race to the best of their ability.

“And yes, they need to smile. This should be something they remember fondly.”

University, winner of the past three Division IV-Class 2A and below state titles for both boys and girls, leads the list of local teams headed to Sulphur’s SPAR Aquatic Center.

The Cubs and runner-up Episcopal help start the four-day meet with preliminaries for Division IV at 9:30 a.m. Preliminaries for Division III-Class 3A competitors, including last year’s runner-up Parkview Baptist, start at 3 p.m. Teams will follow the same schedule for the finals on Thursday.

On Friday, teams in Division I-Class 5A and Division II-Class 4A start their two days of competition. Prelims for Division II start at 9:30 a.m. Friday, followed by Division I prelims at 3 p.m. The finals will feature the same schedule on Saturday.

The Cubs, Episcopal and St. Charles Catholic, a team that moved down to Division IV this year, figure to be the teams to watch in the morning session.

Parkview helps lead the list of local competitors in Division III boys and girls.

Lutcher, last year’s Division III boys champion, moves up to Division II and figures to compete with traditional powers Vandebilt Catholic-Houma  and St. Louis Catholic-Lake Charles for titles. Cabrini-New Orleans is a girls contender.

Defending champions Jesuit-New Orleans (boys) and Northshore-Slidell (girls) help lead the way in Division I with local favorites Catholic High and St. Joseph’s Academy also factoring into the team competition.

University’s Lewis rates St. Charles as the boys favorite in Division IV with the Cubs, Episcopal and another local team, Dunham, in the mix.

The UHS girls have the top entry marks in eight events, including all three relays. Laura Furr has the top marks in the 100-yard freestyle and 100 backstroke. Kathryn “Smacker” Miles (200 individual medley), Ayuko Morikawa (100 butterfly) and Emily Rush (100 breaststroke) also have top marks.