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Photos by Audrey Sayer and Bodhi Tripathi.
Versatile trio leads teams to 6th-place finishes at AISD Invitational
Alex Lynch placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke and fourth in the 200-yard individual medley on Friday leading the Mac swim team to a sixth place finish among 5A schools at the AISD Invitational at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swim Center.
In order to earn points for their team, swimmers must place in the top eight places in an individual or a team relay event. The boys and girls team both placed sixth among 5A schools with 38 and 28 points respectively. The combined total of 66 points was also good enough for an overall sixth-place finish.
Lynch, sophomore Cole Kershner and freshman Madi Baylor each posted points for the team in four different events at the meet.
Kershner placed in the top eight in the 200-yard individual medley (seventh) and the 100-yard backstroke (eighth).
Baylor took sixth place in the girls 200-yard freestyle and seventh in the 100-yard backstroke.
Each of the three swimmers also swam on two relay teams that placed in the top eight.
Kershner and Lynch teamed up with Andrew Lewis and Ivan Zaplatar to take fifth place in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay. McCallum also placed in the top eight in the boys 200-yard freestyle relay anchored by Ivan’s brother Izak Zaplatar preceded by swimmers Jack Hester, Marco Emami and Jordan Trimyer.
“What was so cool about this [relay],” Coach Jeff Rudy said, “was they were actually our ‘B’ relay, but swam in place of the ‘A’ relay and still finished in the top eight.”
Baylor was also on two top-8 relay teams. She swam with Molly and Ellie Blankenship and Bianca Ramirez on the 200-yard freestyle relay team that placed fourth and with Henna McCrae, Ellie Blankenship and Ramirez on the 200-yard medley relay team that placed sixth.
The girls relay team in the 400-yard freestyle featuring Molly Blankenhip, Ellen Fox, Claire Greenberg and Christina Ricci also placed sixth.
Lewis also posted points for the boys team by placing in the top eight in an individual event: the 100-yard butterfly.
Ellie Blankenship earned points on the girls side by placing in the top eight in the 100-yard butterfly.
Lynch earned first place by swimming the fastest time at the meet for all 5A swimmers, but he did not swim against any of his 5A competitors in his heat. He was seeded in the fastest heat and swam against all 6A swimmers. There was only one other sophomore in the heat and no freshmen.
He said afterward that he was pleased that he posted his fastest time of the season: 1.03.72.
“I was happy to have dropped from last weekend where I raced in a club meet,” he said.
Lynch still has a way to go to top his fastest time from last season (1:00.84), but this is only the second meet of the year.
“As you get farther and farther into swimming, the harder it becomes to drop [your time],” Lynch said.
He added that his long-term goal in the 100-yard breaststroke is to approach the 56.00 standard needed to qualify as a National Interscholastic Swimming Association All-American.
He admitted it would also be nice to break the minute mark because that is “a big time barrier in breaststroke.”
Cedar Park Vista Ridge won the 5A meet in all three categories scoring 133 team points in the boys meet and 156 points in the girls meet for an overall point total of 289.
McCallum Top Eight Finishes
Girls total – 28 points – sixth place in 5A
Fourth place – 10 points – 200-yard free style relay – Madi Baylor, Molly Blankenship, Ellie Blankenship, Bianca Ramirez (1:54.37).
Sixth place – 6 points – 200-yard medley relay – Bianca Ramirez, Henna McCrae, Ellie Blankenship, Madi Baylor (2:10.22).
Sixth place – 6 points – 400-yard freestyle relay – Molly Blankenship, Ellen Fox, Claire Greenberg, Christina Ricci (4:44.48).
Sixth place – 3 points – 200-yard freestyle – Madi Baylor (2:15.78).
Seventh place – 2 points – 100-yard backstroke – Madi Baylor (1:10.86).
Eighth place – 1 point – 100-yard butterfly – Ellie Blankenship (1:11.85).
Boys total – 38 points – sixth place in 5A
First place – 9 points – 100-yard breaststroke – Alex Lynch (1:03.72).
Fifth place – 8 points – 400-yard freestyle relay – Ivan Zaplatar, Andrew Lewis, Cole Kershner, Alex Lynch (3:41.37).
Fifth place – 8 points – 200-yard medley relay – Cole Kershner, Alex Lynch, Andrew Lewis, Ivan Zaplatar 1:52.46).
Fourth place – 5 points – 200-yard individual medley – Alex Lynch (2:08.32).
Seventh place – 4 points – 200-yard freestyle relay – Jack Hester, Marco Emami, Jordan Trimyer, Izak Zaplatar 1:52.77).
Seventh place – 2 points – 200-yard individual medley – Cole Kershner (2:22.46).
Eighth place – 1 point – 100-yard backstroke – Cole Kerscher (1:02.24).
Eighth place – 1 point – 100-yard butterfly – Andrew Lewis (1:06.93).
![A PRIDE-FUL WEEK OF CELEBRATION:
As part of AISDs week-long celebration of PRIDE, students of the McCallum Spectrum Club worked to create a week full of activities, prizes and helping hands to support the schools LGBTQ+ community. The club is widely available for anyone to join, and specializes in creating a safe space for students to share and give advice. While Pride month itself isn’t until June, AISD designates one week in March to celebrate and commemorate the importance of this part of the student body.
As part of the week of festivities, the club held a booth in the front hall handing out pride stickers, pins and merch to passers by. For junior Zane Joly, the booth idea was brought up as a way for students to engage with one another, and connect with the community.
“I call out to people in the halls, ‘hey, do you want stickers?’” Joly said. “We just give out free pride stickers and sometimes other free pride merch to the students of Macallum because everybody likes pride stickers.”
While the week itself is packed with a variety of different activities, the overall goal is to bring students closer together and create a safer environment for self expression at McCallum.
“The idea for the student panel largely came from the black [history] student panel that is done during Black History Month,” Joly said. “And the idea for giving out free stuff was developed at Spectrum last year.”
Joly is not only a member of the Spectrum club, but also holds a leadership position giving them a more hands-on role with the projects and Pride Week activities.
“McCallum has a very high queer population,” Joly said. “I think Its nice that we get a chance to celebrate Pride because Pride Month is during the summer, and I think its just a nice thing for the community and getting to just celebrate it.”
While the merch table at lunch was only a small part of the numerous parts of McCallum’s Pride week, for Joly this small impact made all the difference.
“The purpose of Pride is to make people not feel alone and to make them feel safe,” Joly said. “The goal is [to make people] happy about a part of themselves that theyre often conditioned to not feel good about.”
Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Shila Gill.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/53597258192_6e7168d8ae_o-1-1200x676.jpg)
