The latest from Austin

All the area competitors (by area I mean the Athlete's Connection's coverage area) have finished except for divers Hudson Rains (Cy-Fair), Sean Mokhtari (Stratford) and Dominic Ricotta (Cinco Ranch), and it appears the Stratford boys will carry the day. They were in sixth-place the last time team scores were displayed. Coach Michael Hoskovec told me that will be the Spartans' highest-ever finish; the girls once finished fourth.
Otherwise, not a bad weekend for the AC area - we got three state champions and a few more seconds, including two from Eisenhower's Karson Applin.
All that's not to mention how well Kingwood and The Woodlands are doing. They will, of course, be noted in my story.
One final note: I love the camaraderie between district schools here. All the Katy schools came up together and have cheered their hearts out for each other. Same for the Cy-Fair and Spring Branch schools, at least on the second part.
That's good to see, especially in the light of all that hullabaloo (is that how you spell it?) with the column in the Cinco Ranch paper talking about people from other Katy ISD schools. This is what it's all about, not that.
I expect my story will be up before 2:30, with photos to come after that. Remember, you can't buy photos we take at state meets, but peruse them to your heart's content.
Then I will head back to Houston and sleep, sleep, sleep.

An early taste of paradise

Tim Jones has his college choices narrowed to Hawaii and Southern Cal.
Tough call, eh?
Before he goes west for the next phase of his life, Jones earned Texas glory Saturday morning when he won the boys 100 freeestyle state championship. He finished in 45.34, just ahead of Kingwood's Austin Wilson (45.4) and El Paso Coronado's Jake Hartley (45.46). Lamar's Zach Holmes was fourth (46.13) and Shea Kenny from Cypress Woods came in seventh (46.47).
"I just swam as fast as I could ... to my potential," Jones said. "I didn't do as well as I wanted in the 200 (he finished fifth earlier in the day) so I wanted to redeem myself. ...
"I had to focus more today. Usually in the finals it's how you finish that determines the race."

Cy Creek freshman wins 50 free title

Cypress Creek freshman Kathryn Eckhart won the 50 free state title, upending The Woodlands senior Kelsey Amundsen by .18 seconds. Eckhart finished in 23.11, almost a full second faster than her time at the start of the year. The key and the first thing coach Jeff Chandler mentioned was her reaction time of .64.
Stratford's Lilly Marrow was fifth and Clements' Danielle Yoho was sixth.

Hunter Bayley wins 200 freestyle state title

Stratford senior Hunter Bayley came from two back on the final lap to win the 200-meter freestyle relay championship Saturday morning at the UIL 5A State Swimming and Diving Championships in Austin.
He will presented his gold medal shortly.
Also, Kingwood's girls 200 medley relay team won the state title in a national record time of 1:43.25.

Basketball playoff thoughts

A few thoughts to unload on this Wednesday morning:
* Was just chatting with a few folks here in the office regarding the boys bracket looking, well, a bit different than we figured. Congratulations to Eisenhower and Elkins on pulling off two big upsets; Ike, fourth-place in 19-5A, edged 20-5A champion 65-63 at Delmar Fieldhouse, and Elkins ousted 24-5A champ Galveston Ball 66-48 at Santa Fe.
I have to wonder how much momentum Elkins carried in from defeating Kempner in Friday's playoff game for fourth-place in District 23-5A. Ball, meanwhile, won a district that simply isn't that good.
Conversely, according to always-in-the-know Jim Hicks of RCSSports.com, Bellaire turned down a tiebreaker game with Chavez, then was pounded by Yates on Saturday entering last night. The dislike between Cardinals coach Bruce Glover and Chavez coach Kevin Pullum is no secret, but I'm not exactly sure how that figured into all this.
* As it is now, we may see some intriguing district rematches in the regional quarterfinals. Strake Jesuit could play Alief Taylor, and Hightower might play Fort Bend Bush. Strake and Hightower went undefeated in their districts; of course, the Crusaders finished the regular season as the state's No. 1-ranked team.
* Congratulations to all the girls winners from last night, especially Cy-Fair. What a way to pull out a victory, not only considering the shot Chiney Ogwumike made to win it but also that happened after point guard Cassie Peoples sustained a broken right leg with only a minute left.
I'm not one for plugging the competition, but check out the Chronicle's video highlights here. Chiney's shot is the first highlight. It was incredible.
Our best goes out to Cassie, too.
I'll be traveling to Central Texas tomorrow and will be in Austin Friday and Saturday for the state swimming championships. Catch ya soon.

How the boy's basketball playoff picture looks (2/19)

Here's a sneak look at how the boy's basketball brackets look right now. There's a couple of spots that need to be filled and there's a handful of games this weekend that will determine either playoff positioning or tie-breaker games for one playoff spot.

The play-in games in our area are from 17-5A and 23-5A. Katy, Katy Taylor and Morton Ranch are each tied with 3-7 records for fourth place in 17-5A. That means there will be a three-way mini-tournament, with Katy facing Taylor Friday at 6 at Cinco Ranch High School, with the winner facing Morton Ranch the next day at 3 p.m., also at Cinco. Whoever comes out of this mini-tourney will have to rest up quickly, because undefeated Strake Jesuit awaits in the first round.

Elkins and Kempner are tied at 7-6 for fourth place in 23-5A, and will meet each other Friday at 4 p.m. at Wheeler Fieldhouse for the play-in game. The winner will face Galveston Ball in the first round.

There are a couple more games that will affect the playoff picture on Friday. Clear Lake and Clear Brook meet in a battle for third place in 24-5A, and maybe even second if Clear Springs trips up against Clear Creek. Pearland and Deer Park could flip in Friday's games, while Spring and Klein Collins will meet to decide the final spot in 13-5A.

All the Cy-Fair ISD teams know who they will meet in the first round except for Cypress Woods, who will wait for 16-5A to work itself out this weekend. Georgetown, Vista Ridge and Stony Point all finished the regular season 7-7 in district play and will play this weekend in a play-in tournament. The winner will face the Wildcats in the first round.

Only two first-round games have been confirmed with a time and place, with Cinco Ranch-Alief Taylor facing off Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Wheeler, with Mayde Creek-Elsik following them at 8 p.m.

We'll have all the times for the other games and the first-round matchups on Sunday on our site.

Possible first-round playoff matchups (if the season ended today):

Region II

Klein Forest (second in 13-5A) vs. Oak Ridge (third in 14-5A)
Cypress Falls(fourth in 15-5A) vs. Leander (first in 16-5A)

College Park (first in 14-5A) vs. Spring/Klein Collins (fourth in 13-5A)
Langham Creek (second in 15-5A) vs. Round Rock (third in 16-5A)


The Woodlands (second in 14-5A) vs. Westfield (third in 13-5A)
Cypress Woods (first in 15-5A) vs. Georgetown/Stony Point/Vista Ridge(fourth in 16-5A)

Tomball (first in 13-5A) vs. Lufkin (fourth in 14-5A)
Cypress Springs(third in 15-5A) vs. Round Rock McNeil (second in 16-5A)

Region III
Mayde Creek (third in 17-5A) vs. Elsik (second in 18-5A)
Eisenhower (fourth in 19-5A) vs. Bellaire (first in 20-5A)

Humble (second in 19-5A) vs. Madison (third in 20-5A)
Katy/Katy Taylor/Morton Ranch (fourth in 17-5A) vs. Strake Jesuit (first in 18-5A)

North Shore (second in 21-5A) vs. Pearland (third in 22-5A)
Elkins/Kempner (fourth in 23-5A) vs. Galveston Ball (first in 24-5A)

Bush (second in 23-5A) vs. Clear Lake/Clear Brook (third in 24-5A)
La Porte (first in 22-5A) vs. Channelview (fourth in 21-5A)

Alief Taylor (third in 17-5A) vs. Cinco Ranch (second in 18-5A)
Kingwood (first in 19-5A) vs. Sam Houston (fourth in 20-5A)

Seven Lakes (first in 17-5A) vs. Stratford (fourth in 18-5A)
Chavez (second in 20-5A) vs. Atascocita (third in 19-5A)

Beaumont West Brook (third in 21-5A) vs. Deer Park (second in 22-5A)
Hightower (first in 23-5A) vs. Clear Brook/Clear Lake (fourth in 24-5A)

Travis (third in 23-5A) vs. Clear Springs (second in 24-5A)
Port Arthur Memorial (first in 21-5A) vs. Dobie (fourth in 22-5A)

Girls basketball bi-district times (updated 4:53 p.m.)

I'll keep an updated list here. I still have e-mails out to several coaches from our coverage area; as soon as I get confirmed times and dates, they'll be added here.
Here's the list of what I know so far as of 12:45. Feel free to comment with any games you know:
- Cedar Park Vista Ridge at Cypress Falls, 6:30 Monday
- Stratford vs. Morton Ranch, 5:30 Tuesday at Don Coleman Coliseum
- Elsik vs. Mayde Creek, 6 p.m. Tuesday at Katy Taylor
- Westside vs. Humble, 6 p.m. Tuesday at Campbell Center
- Cy-Fair vs. Round Rock, 7 p.m. Tuesday at Berry Center
- Jersey Village at Cedar Park, 7 p.m. Tuesday
- Memorial vs. Katy Taylor, 7 p.m. Tuesday at Don Coleman Coliseum
- Bellaire vs. Kingwood, 7:30 Tuesday at Campbell Center
- Cinco Ranch vs. Alief Taylor or Hastings, 7:30 Tuesday at Katy Taylor
[The one-game playoff between Taylor and Hastings will be at 6 p.m. Friday at Hastings South Gym.]
- Lamar vs. Eisenhower, 7:30 Tuesday at Delmar
- Cypress Woods vs. Georgetown, 7:30 Tuesday at Brenham
- Nimitz vs. Chavez, 7:30 Tuesday at Barnett Center
- Dulles vs. Brazoswood, TBA

Three other 23-5A vs. 24-5A games will not be decided until Friday night.

Athlete of the Week: Stratford relay team looking to reach state

Hunter Bailey has had a goal of reaching the state swimming finals since last year, when he qualified for state in two individual events. He said he wanted to qualify for three events, including a couple of relay teams.
And so far, he is right on schedule.
Bailey, with Rob Chuchla, Marlon Bishop and Michael Bishop, won two relay events at Saturday’s 18-5A championships, winning the 200-yard medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. The quartet won the 200 medley with a time of 1:38.04 and the 200 freestyle in 1:27.68.
All four swimmers had such a strong meet that they were named this week’s Athlete’s Connection/College Ball or Bust Athlete of the Week.
“I’m still hoping to make it to state and hopefully send three relay teams there,” Bailey said. “That would be awesome.”
The group also did well in individual events, with Bailey winning the 500 freestyle and the 200 freestyle, Michael Bishop winning the 50 freestyle and finishing second in the 100 butterfly, and Marlon finishing second in the 100 breaststroke.
“Both of those guys, Hunter and Michael, are training,” Stratford coach Michael Hoskovic said. “We trained through this meet because we got our goals, and our goal is to go on through regionals and go to state.
“They were a little beat up a little bit today, but we’re going to give them a little bit of rest ”so that they’re in their best form in the next couple of weeks.”

Main site remains down

Our IT extraordinaire, Fred Newtz, is working diligently to get the site back up and running ASAP. Until then, all new stories will be posted here - as will always be the case if the main site is down for an extended period.