Eighty-two swimmers from three Jefferson and Orange county swim teams qualified for the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation state swim meet, which begins Thursday and concludes Sunday at Texas A&M University in College Station, and helped the Golden Triangle Swim Association win the team championship at the July 14 region meet in Beaumont.

The GTSA includes 275 swimmers from the Beaumont Area Swim Team, the Swim Team of Orange County and Spindletop Swimming in Mid County. The teams competed against each other each Saturday during June and July and joined forces to represent the GTSA in the Region 1 meet at the Beaumont ISD’s Thomas Center natatorium. That meet hosted 13 teams and 450 athletes from greater Houston. The team title was the GTSA’s first in its 30-plus year history.

Swimmers who placed in the top three overall in each event at Region 1 advanced to the state meet. The 82 who will represent GTSA is the most for that organization.

“Our swimmers have been training for this since the beginning of May!” GTSA coach and Beaumont ISD aquatics coordinator Sheena Walker said. “They have dedicated their entire summers to our sport, swimming 2-4 hours a day, and also completing dry land workouts weekly as well. These athletes truly are the hardest working and most dedicated individuals, and it is so very rare to see young kids be so passionate and goal-oriented! Their age range is 4-17 years old.”

The top three in each event at state will advance to a national meet in Virginia in August 2019.

GTSA team members who qualified include:

Kate Bommer, Malaika Broussard, Graham Buchanan, Allie Callister, Melissa Callister, Edmundo Camargo, Donovan Chaney, Jayla Coffey, Dalton Dishman, Makenna Dishman,

Maelynn Douglas, Jordynn Edwards, Karrenton Fillyaw, Zaniya Flanagan, Vincent Fletcher, Rob Florer, Kalyssa Fontenot, Kevin Fontenot, Kevon Fontenot, Sam Frost,

Damian Garcia, Emma Gilby, Lucas Gilby, Kaisen Guy, Audrey Huch, Koby Jones, Luke Landry, Maggie Landry, Crystal Liu, Alexandra MacNeil, Cooper MacNeil, Donnie MacNeil,

Kade Marcantel, Brandt Meaux, Zachary Milton, Darian Morgan, Jan Morgan, Jason Morgan, Jayde Morgan, Easton Morris, Alexis Mose, Mason Myers,

Aidan Neireiter, Anakin Neireiter, Andrew Neireiter, Ashlyn Neireiter, Dylan Nguyen, Joseph Nguyen, Landyn Nguyen, Peter Nguyen, Nathan Oliphant, Lily Parra,

Isaac Prescod, Pearl Prescod, Jaci Redmon, Skylar Redmon, Kendall Reed, Taylor Reed, Caroline Reinholt, Catherine Reinholt, Donte Riley, Kayleigh Robinson,

Veronica Rocha, Grace Ross, Holly Sias, Clinton Smith, Jakob Sokic, Michael Todd, Reid Todd, Rush Todd, Donovan Tohill, Elliot Totorice, Jathen Townsend,

Paul Tullos, Kennon Vasseur, Kelly Velazquez, Alexander Voth, Shanna Walker, Torrie Weems, Carter West, Cooper Wilcox and Emily Zhou.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews