By Zakary Rodriguez | Advertising Manager |
On Friday, Dec. 6, and Saturday, Dec. 7, the 2019 South Zone TISCA Swimming and Diving Championship meet was held at the Bill Walker and Josh Davis Natatorium over both days. Representing Roosevelt for the second year in a row was Matthew Swanson, the only swimmer from Roosevelt who swam in the meet.
As opposed to schools like MacArthur whose bleachers were filled with swimmers and their bags, making it look like they were at any other meet, the “Roosevelt” section, sandwiched between “Edison” and “BASIS San Antonio – Shavano Campus” signs, consisted of only Swanson and his one duffel bag.
“I’m proud,” Swanson said. “I’m just glad I’m able to represent Roosevelt in a positive light.”
At the meet, Swanson swam in four total events over the two days for preliminaries. On the first day, he swam a 50 yard butterfly and a 50 yard backstroke; on the second day, Swanson swam a 100 yard freestyle and a 100 yard backstroke. It was with the 50 and 100 yard backstroke that Swanson made it to the finals, where he placed 14th out of the 28 swimmers in the 100 yard backstroke. Backstroke is Swanson’s primary event to compete in and arguably his best, seen as in early November it was revealed that he held the 10th fastest time for backstroke in San Antonio.
But backstroke wasn’t the only the only event Swanson shined in. He placed in the top 20 swimmers for three of the four events, including 19th place out of the 162 total swimmers in the 100 freestyle event. Although the high placement didn’t take him to the finals for freestyle, it rightfully shows that Matthew Swanson is an extremely talented, well rounded, and motivated swimmer who has been able to stay constantly improving.
“I expected him to get to TISCA,” teammate Seth Gutierrez said. “It made sense that he would make it, him being the best swimmer on the team.”
Swanson has been able to constantly shave seconds off of his times for several strokes, proving he has no intention of stopping anytime soon. As far as the road to come, he plans to swim in college and become a division athlete, and has begun looking for schools that can make that a reality. Although he understands that the transition from a high school team to a college team, and of possible D1 caliber, will require him to put in more work, he’s confident that he will be able to keep up with what’s expected of him. But for now, with everything he’s done, Swanson has made sure that everyone knows how proud he is to be here and to represent Roosevelt.
“I’m so thankful I was able to compete in the 2019 South Zone TISCA Championship Meet,” Swanson said. “Being able to represent Roosevelt in the pool this weekend was amazing.”
