LEWISVILLE – In the area beside the eighth lane, in the corner adjacent to the starting block, the Coppell swim team cheered on its members during the District 5-6A championships yesterday at the Lewisville ISD Westside Aquatic Center. 

By the end of the meet, Coppell saw all six relay teams and five swimmers for seven individual events advance to regionals, to be held at the same location in two weeks, as well as the boys’ team taking third place overall in the meet. 

The Class 6A Region II Swimming and Diving Meet is Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at LISD Westside Aquatic Center. 

Coppell also saw two school records broken, both by junior Cole Tramel, for the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. 

“Cole Tramel was a little bit of a star because he broke two very difficult school records that hadn’t been broken in years,” Coppell coach Marieke Mastebroek said. “Cole Tramel is getting some payoff, finally, for very hard work throughout several years, so I’m super happy for him.”

Tramel’s 200-yard freestyle time is 1:44.44 and his 500-yard freestyle time is 4:42.47.

“I had been trying to get them for a while, but I got both today,” Tramel said. “When I was swimming, I could kind of tell that I was feeling good during the race. I was like, ‘OK, I might actually get it.’ Sometimes when I turn, I could see my splits on the clock, so I was trying to make sure that I was going to get it. I knew it was possible for me to get it, so I was going especially hard.”

Tramel, despite missing practice earlier in the week due to illness, advances to regionals for both events in addition to the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays. 

Coppell seniors Ritesh Dontula and Connor Neely and junior Ivan Lau make up the rest of the qualifying 200-yard freestyle relay. Coppell seniors Johan Pretorius and Ben Borchgardt, along with Lau and Tramel, are the 400-yard freestyle qualifying relay team. Pretorius, Borchgardt, Neely and Coppell senior Liam Bjorkvall make up the final advancing boys relay team, the 200-yard medley. 

On the girls’ side, Coppell found similar success. 

Coppell seniors Aurelie Migault and AnaMarija Radicic, junior Shreya Tirumala and sophomore Krithi Meduri advance for the 200-yard medley relay. Tirumala, along with senior Reesha Goes, sophomore Claire McCoppin and freshman Rachel Li advance for the 200-freestyle relay. In the 400-freestyle relay, Migault, Radicic, Meduri and Goes compose the qualifying team. 

For the seniors of the team, it was the last district meet of their high school swim career. 

“It feels more fun, less intense,” Goes said. “Since I made it with relays, relays are always more fun than the individuals because there are other swimmers with you to cheer you on.”

All the individual qualifiers from Coppell are members of the qualifying relay teams. 

Pretorius, a regional qualifier for the third year in a row, won both the 200-yard individual medley and the boys 100-yard backstroke. Lau placed fourth in the individual medley and also advances. Tirumala placed fifth in the girls 100-yard backstroke. Migault placed fifth in the 100-yard freestyle and fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke. 

Sophomore Yassin Helaly, the only member of the Coppell diving team, will also advance to regionals following his event on Friday. 

The Coppell region team also consists of alternates: senior Aarya Atluri, sophomore Nathan Lim and juniors Hector Romero, Neil Upreti and Sofia Simula. 

“Every year, we are getting better as a team,” Mastebroek said. “There are two strong teams in this district, [Southlake Carroll and Flower Mound]. This is the strongest district in the region, possibly in the state, because we have the two fastest teams in Texas that we have to race against in district. It’s very hard for our kids to actually make region. In almost any other district, we would have a gazillion kids make region, but because they have to race those two best teams, it’s very difficult.”

According to Mastebroek, her swimmers mainly come with little club experience and begin at a lower level competitively than schools such as Carroll and Flower Mound. Most of the Coppell swimmers tend to be “homegrown, grassroots swimmers” who still managed to hold their own against swim giants like the Dragons and Jaguars.  

“For a team in a town where there’s no swimming, no club, no real swimming pool for competitive swimming, we exceeded everybody’s expectations today,” Mastebroek said. “Every year, it keeps getting better.” 

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