Mustangs Champions at 2004 Spring Sectionals!

The Dallas Mustangs traveled to Texas A&M University in College Station for the United States Swimming Spring Sectional Championships on the last weekend in February 2004. Teams from as far away as Boston competed in this senior level event. Our Mustangs had magical swims all weekend long and ran away with the team title. The top ten teams were:

TEAM	SCORE
Dallas Mustangs	948
City of Plano	631
Cypress Fairbanks	529
Alamo Area	423
Blue Tide	391
Crawfish (LA)	287
Scottsdale	282
Longhorn	257
Katy	233
Wave	196

Codie Hansen and Candace Blackman led the charge as they battled for the individual high point award. In the end, Codie edged out Candace by five points, but both were tremendous competitors all weekend long. Our men’s side was led by veteran Matt Weghorst, who won two events and made an Olympic Trials qualifying time in the 50 Free. Katie Roberts made her first Olympic Trials cut and won the 200 Free.

Speaking of 200 Free, the Mustangs displayed their dominance by placing first through fifth in the women’s final of that event. Congratulations to Katie Roberts, Codie Hansen, Candace Blackman, Jennifer Blackman, and Caroline Barnett for contributing to this sizable feat.

An impressive display of our team’s depth took place in the women’s 800 Free Relay. The Mustangs took the top two places and put three relays in the top eight. Those teams were:

1st place (New Pool Record) – Codie Hansen, Jennifer Blackman, Katie Roberts, and Candace Blackman

2nd place – Caroline Barnett, Katie Smith, Meredith Grubb, and Meredith Monroe

8th place – Steph Futscher, Kate Gunning, Maddie Steiner, and Adriane Devereux

Jonathan Berrittini and Eric Gusa made US Open qualifying times. Jonathan in the 100 back and Eric in the 100 fly. Caroline Barnett and Meredith Monroe competed well all weekend. Both made US Open qualifying times in the process, Caroline in the 500 Free and Meredith in the 100 Back. More great performances were turned in by two of our men’s relays as they swam to victory in the 400 Medley Relay (Jonathan Berrittini, Brooks Haller, Eric Gusa and Matt Weghorst) and 400 Free Relay (Matt Weghorst, Eric Gusa, Jonathan Berrittini, and Byron Carlisle).

Congratulations to all of the Mustangs who contributed to this historic event in our club’s history. It was truly a magical weekend and we should all be proud of all of the following Mustangs’ efforts –

Bri Barfield, Caroline Barnett, Jeff Bensen, Jonathan Berrittini, Candace Blackman, Jennifer Blackman, Molly Bollen, Byron Carlisle, Adriane Devereux, Steph Futscher, Beth Geis, Meredith Grubb, Kate Gunning, Eric Gusa, Brooks Haller, Codie Hansen, Alex Jennings, Caroline Jennings, Nicole Keller, Grace Kittle, Rustin Kormos, Maggie Marshall, Reagan Marshall, Meredith Monroe, Katie Roberts, Erika Saito, Jessica Shaw, Katie Smith, Maddie Steiner, Bailey Thompson, Matt Weghorst, Amanda Arrington, and Courtney Hamilton.

Congratulations Mustangs!!!