A full recap is to come after final, but in Friday’s prelims at the Texas 5A High School State Championship meet, future Stanford Cardinal Gray Umbach had two amazing individual swims to break two State Records.
First, in the 200 IM, Umbach took the top seed in 1:44.92, which is three seconds better than his previous best time that was done back as a sophomore. That’s a new State Record (breaking the mark held by Stanford’s Matt Thompson in 1:45.27) and makes him the 3rd-best high school swimmer in the event’s history – behind Kyle Whitaker and David Nolan.
But he wasn’t done. Later, in the 100 fly, He swam a 47.15 that was within a stroke of the National Public School Record. That time is an eight-tenths improvement off of his previous best and broke the State Record of the legendary Dan Wescott that has stood since 1999. In fact, he crushed that mark that was previously a 27.81.
In a bit of poetic justice, Wescott also hailed from North Houston (he swam at the Woodlands High, where Umbach swims at the newer Woodlands College Park High in the same district), and continued on to have a huge career at Stanford. A bit of foreshadowing, perhaps.
Umbach hit a bit of a slow in his progression after breaking multiple National Age Group Records when he was younger, but in the last year he’s really shot back to the forefront of swimming.
More recaps after Saturday’s finals, see Live Results here.