Frassati Catholic Falcons await TAPPS state swimming championships

Traditionally, Frassati Catholic’s swim program has been conducted by high school seniors. Now the Falcons’ strength comes from underclassmen.

The girls’ and boys’ teams won their respective regional titles for the first time in school history and are now preparing for the state.

The girls will look to maintain their status as perennial favorites, runners-up in 2020 and third in 2021, while the boys will make their first team appearance behind the performances of first and second years.

Frassati Catholic of Spring will compete in the TAPPS 2023 State Swimming Championships for Division II taking place on February 7th from 8am to 5pm at the Josh Davis Natatorium in San Antonio.

“Our girls team have had a lot of success,” said Stephen Schmidt, Catholic Frassati head coach. “We’re happy that we won regional again this year, it’s just super exciting that the boys are there too. …This is the best boys’ team we’ve ever had.”

Frassati Catholic, which opened in 2013, won a total of 10 events at the TAPPS East Regional Div. II Championships at the University of Houston. It was the most medals the Falcons have ever collected.

The girls won the regional championship with 134 points ahead of St. John XXIII (116), Fort Bend Christian (51), and The Woodlands Christian Academy (50). The Lady Falcons won five events, including two relays.

The boys were crowned champions for the first time in program history with 122 points, ahead of Second Baptist (104), Lutheran South (59) and St. John XXIII (55). The Falcons also won five events, including two seasons.

“I knew the girls had a good chance of doing well, the boys were pretty close. …It just worked really well,” said Schmidt. “We’re dealing with pretty tough competition. …So it was probably a bit of a surprise for them to see all these Pans.”

The girls team of sophomore Jimena de la Maza, junior Virginia Davis, junior Kathryn Vieceli and sophomore Alison Voisin won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:02.17 and the team of freshman Natalia Kacprzak, Davis, Voisin and Vieceli placed first in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:47.08).

De la Maza also placed first in the 200-yard IM (2:37.55), Vieceli placed first in the 100-yard freestyle (54.63), and Davis placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke (1st place). : 14.58). Last year’s girls placed second at Regionals and fourth at State.

“The girls have a little more veteran leadership than the boys, but both have youth movements,” Schmidt said.

The boys’ gold medal relays are all underclassmen. The team of sophomore Luca Fournier, sophomore Alexander Groning, sophomore Christopher Lenz and freshman Jude Davis won the 200-yard medley relay (1:48.41) and the team of Davis, junior Ben Fedoruk, Groning and Fournier placed first in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:38.20).

Fournier placed first in the 50-yard freestyle (23.96) and 100-yard backstroke (1:02.15). Lenz was first in the 100m butterfly (1:01.10). Frassati Catholic also placed second or third in a total of 11 events.

“We still have a few upper-class leaders, but the energy really comes from the younger group,” Schmidt said. “It was just an incredible day and everything seemed to be in full swing.”

The Falcons will send at least 20 swimmers to the state, Schmidt said.

“We’ll see, can’t control what other people do, you can only swim your best time, so we want to see if they perform even better than at the regionals,” said Schmidt. “It’s just going to be fun to have a big group there and see what we can do and get better from there.”

Regardless of where the teams end up, Schmidt is looking forward to improving as the majority of swimmers are set to return next season.

“We hope to build on that and grow, there’s still something we can do,” Schmidt said. “They will keep pushing each other and they have years to grow, years to get better.”

More high school sports news