The swim team will be competing in their Regional Championship Meet at the MISD Natatorium on Fri., Feb. 5 and Sat., Feb. 6 at 9 a.m.

“We have several individual swimmers and relays with the potential to medal and break school records at regionals,” senior Matthew Garza said.

On Saturday, at Finals, only first place in every event automatically advances to the State Championship Meet, held in Austin in two weeks.

“Our coach has worked to teach us strategies to win our races and work on technique(s),” junior Andrew Wright said. “We’re ready to give it our best.”

Wright said swimming requires commitment.

“We’ve practiced every day since August,” he said. “Some of us even (train) year round during the summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas break.”

Garza said he has a small chance at being state champion.

“Texas has some of the fastest swimmers in the nation so if I’m being more realistic I would say my goal would be to medal (top 3) at state,” he said. “That would be such a huge accomplishment, and I have definitely put in the time and effort in my training to achieve this goal.”

The guys relay team is the fastest one the school has had since 2009, Wright said.

“It’s the last year for us to be together because our fastest and third fastest guys are graduating, so we are ready to have fun and give it our all,” he said.

With the extra work Garza put in, he said he has the capability to go far.

“Senior year is the year you give it all you got,” he said. “You have to go out with a bang.”

Garza said he hopes everyone performs their best.

“I am so proud of my team,” Garza said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would do as well as we are doing and yet here we are. This came as such a big surprise to me but it shouldn’t have because everyone has been training so hard and it’s really paying off.”