Grapevine swimmers ready to take it higher

The Grapevine swimming and diving team should again make a heady run toward a high state-meet finish this year.

But before any Mustangs athletes take to a medal stand in Austin, they’ll be looking to start the trek through the qualification process later this month.

Helping to lead the Mustangs when they get to the district meet at the GCISD Natatorium on Jan. 23 will be a few of the returning standouts.

Parker Shultz, a junior, and David Hallaron, a sophomore, are already having another strong year and look to continue their return march to the state meet. Ben Kalmaeach made state last year and is the only senior on team.

For Shultz, who has been competing in the 100m Fly, 200m Free, 200m Free relay and the 200m Medley relay, the emphasis has been on picking up where he left off last year.

Shultz said he finished at the regional meet with his best times of the season.

He competed at the state meet in the medley relay where the Mustangs finished 13th.

One of the few who are able to feel comfortable with the difficult stroke of the butterfly, but it’s become his favorite.

“I like the fly better because I practice it really hard and I’ve gotten better at it and stronger than the free,” Shultz said. “It’s the most challenging and I’m tall and it works for me and I enjoy it.”

The 100m Fly is the event Shultz said that he’s improved the most, bettering his times in most every event this season.

“At this stage of the season, my times are improving by tenths of a second,” he said. “I’m confident of where I am and I’m getting three club practices in,” Shultz said in addition to his daily Grapevine workouts.

His teammate, Hallaron, has been excelling in the 100m Back, in addition to being a 200m IM, 200m IM relay and 200m Free relay participant.

“My best stroke is the back and I’ve been doing it a long time,” Hallaron said.

Swimming any stroke for “a long time” means back to when Hallaron started the sport at age 6, he recalls, having started with the North Texas Natadores program.

Interestingly, the sophomore has also been asked to swim the breast leg of the medley relay.

He said he doesn’t swim any of the breast events other than the relay because of the order of the strokes in meets.

“The back is before the 100 breast and there’s not much sense to do back-to-back events so I just stick with the IM, but I enjoy doing it (the breast), too,” Hallaron said.

Now is the time the Grapevine team is looking ahead to fine-tuning their training.

“I think things are going well and I’m looking forward to the championship part of the season,” Hallaron said, noting the district meet is a few weeks away.

“I’m faster now than at state,” he said, where he had finished seventh.

Hallaron is just a half-second off the school record in the back. He said it will take working hard and staying committed to shave that last bit off his time.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Grapevine swimmers ready to take it higher."