Lubbock High School’s Ellis Fox breaks 3 records in district swim meet

Ellis Fox wasn't feeling the best throughout the week leading up to the District 3-5A swimming and diving championships. To help get past that, Fox spent Saturday in the Pete Ragus Aquatic Center searching for positive vibes, surrounding herself with teammates for encouragement and energy.

She must have found them because Fox set two individual records, helped her relay team set another and guided the Lubbock High girls to the district title.

From under the weather to the top of the podium, the LHS junior had quite the day.

Fox broke two of her own records on Saturday, winning the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstrokes in times of 57.35 and 56.79, respectively. She held the previous records, which she set in 2020.

“It’s a really neat experience because you’re seeing the progress that you make over certain years because training is different every single time,” Fox said of breaking her own district records. “That’s really awesome.”

In the final girl's event of the day, she kickstarted her team to a record-setting performance in the 400 freestyle relay. Fox, along with Scarlett McCloud, Kenedi Claussen and Emma Brady, finished in 3:39.02.

“We talk a lot about how I feel is not always how I’m going to swim today,” Lubbock swim coach Trey Hayes said of Fox. “I think maybe for the first time she really got that idea. Get in there and just race and see what happens. I think she was a little surprised about herself because she wasn’t feeling that well.”

Several other district records fell in the meet. Brady – who shared Swimmer of the Meet honors with Fox – shattered her old 100-yard breaststroke record by finishing in 1:03.89. Brady also won the 200 individual medley. She and Fox were also on the winning 200 medley relay team to kick off the swimming portion of the meet.

Coronado’s Hollie Smith came very close to the record in the 50 freestyle but got the record in the 100 freestyle. Smith was the only swimmer from a school other than Lubbock High to win an individual race. She was also on the winning girls' 200 freestyle relay.

The Westerners ran away with the district title, earning 209.5 points compared to the 102.5 points accumulated by Coronado, which finished send. Monterey was third with 88 points.

LHS had enough juice to edge Coronado in the girls standings, totaling 174 points for the meeting. Coronado had 156 points and Amarillo finished third with 70.

“I thought they swam incredible,” Hayes said of the Lubbock schools. “I hate seeing it with some of my seniors. Their careers are over, but every one of those seniors, we talked about before we left our meeting today and said you guys make sure no matter what happens, you can say I’m taking my goggles off for the last time, I did everything I could today and I saw that from my seniors today. I was very pleased with that.”

Scarlett McCloud, Jones Lambert, Jacob Ellerbrook, River Paulk and Garth Thomas each won two individual events for LHS.

Allysa Britt of Coronado took the girls diving title while Coronado’s Kaleb Vaughn just bested LHS’s Kyler Villarreal in the boys division. Britt and Vaughn were also the Divers of the Meet.

“Allysa was really consistent,” LISD dives coach Logan Pearsall said “All of our girls dove really well, Allysa was just really consistent.”

Hayes was swept the Swimming Coach of the Meet awards while Pearsall took both dive coach honors. Paulk was the boys Swimmer of the Meet.

District 3-5A Swimming & Diving Championships

At Pete Ragus Aquatic Center

All swim events in yards

Saturday

Girls

Girls Team Scores – Lubbock High 174, Coronado 156, Amarillo High 70, Lubbock-Cooper 50, Monterey 38, Tascosa 14, Vega 13, Caprock 10

200 Medley Relay – 1. LHS (Ellis Fox, Emma Brady, Scarlett McCloud, Amirta Ramesh) 1:47.98; 2. Coronado, 1:52.36; 3. Monterey, 2:07.57; 4. Lubbock-Cooper, 2:07.92; 5. Tascosa, 2:20.80; 6. Caprock, 2:38.56; AHS, DQ

200 Freestyle – 1. McCloud, LHS, 2:00.62; 2. Terrah DeLorimiere, Coronado, 2:03.27; 3. Averi Duncan, Coronado, 2:04.45.

200 Individual Medley – 1. Brady, LHS, 2:09.32; 2. Gabriella Luna, Coronado, 2:14.28; 3. Lynlee Spinhirne, Vega, 2:17.24.

50 Freestyle – 1. Hollie Smith, Coronado, 24.34; 2. Ramesh, LHS, 25.46; 3. Addison Newman, AHS, 25.85;

1-Meter Diving – 1. Allysa Britt, LHS, 417.90; 2. Maya Hollins, Coronado, 323.60; 3. Alexandria Leppert, Coronado, 298.10.

100 Butterfly – 1. Fox, LHS; 57.35 (district record); 2. Hannah Luna, AHS, 1:03.12; 3. Sophia Morris, LHS, 1:05.13.

100 Freestyle – 1. Smith, Coronado, 52.78 (district record); 2. Ramesh, LHS, 57.04; 3. Newman, AHS, 57.48.

500 Freestyle – 1. McCloud, LHS, 5:28.04; 2. DeLorimiere, Coronado, 5:32.90; 3. Addison Donai, LCP, 5:35.44.

200 Freestyle Relay – 1. Coronado (Smith, Averi Duncan, DeLorimere, Chloe Clark); 2. LHS, 1:46.60; 3. AHS, 1:56.69.

100 Backstroke – 1. Fox, LHS, 56.79 (district record); 2. Spinhirne, Vega, 1:00.20; 3. Luna, AHS, 1:04.02.

100 Breaststroke – 1. Brady, LHS, 1:03.89 (district records); 2. Luna, Coronado, 1:05.56; 3. Briella Cornwell, Coronado, 1:12.49.

400 Freestyle Relay – 1. LHS (Fox, McCloud, Claussen, Brady), 3:39.02 (district record); 2. Coronado, 3:55.38; 3. AHS, 4:00.61.

Boys

Boys Team Scores – Lubbock High 209.5, Coronado 102.5, Monterey 88, Lubbock-Cooper 51, Amarillo High 39, Tascosa 31, Caprock 8, Estacado 7

200 Medley Relay – 1. LHS (Garth Thomas, Nolan Maples, Jacob Byars, River Paulk), 1:40.41; 2. Monterey, 1:44.92; 3. Coronado, 1:49.84; 4. Tascosa, 1:51.14; 5. LCP, 1:51.16; 6. AHS, 1:53.35; 7. Caprock, 2:12.65

200 Freestyle – 1. Lambert Jones, LHS, 1:44.47; 2. Max Zabriskie, LHS, 1:48.73; 3. Carson Daily, Coronado, 1:50.49.

200 Individual Medley – 1. Ellerbrook, LHS, 2:01.06; 2. Trey Jackson, Coronado, 2:03.99; 3. Tyler Jackson, 2:04.88.

50 Freestyle – 1. Paulk, LHS, 21.32; 2. Dylan Green, Monterey, 22.09; 3. Byars, LHS, 23.04.

1-Meter Diving – 1. Kaleb Vaughn, Coronado, 379.65; 2. Kyler Villarreal, LHS, 375.55; 3. Keoni Spence, LHS, 319.65.

100 Butterfly – 1. Garth, LHS, 54.35; 2. Michael Grove, Monterey, 56.75; 3. Lance Dykhouse, AHS, 56.96.

100 Freestyle – 1. Paulk, LHS, 47.68; Green, Monterey, 49.62; 3. Carson Daily, Coronado, 50.45.

500 Freestyle – 1. Jones, LHS, 4:47.61; 2. Tyler Jackson, Coronado, 4:52.80; 3. Trey Jackson, Coronado, 4:57.63.

200 Freestyle Relay – 1. LSH (Jones, Byars, Maples, Zabriskie), 1:33.16; 2. Monterey, 1:34.60; 3. Coronado, 1:38.11.

100 Backstroke – 1. Garth, LHS, 57.16; 2. Dykhouse, AHS, 57.95; 3. Landry Harman, LCP, 58.98.

100 Breaststroke – 1. Ellerbrook, LHS, 1:00.29; 2. Maples, LHS, 1:02.95; 3. Landry Kern, Monterey, 1:06.54.

400 Freestyle Relay – 1. LHS (Jones, Ellerbrook, Thomas, Paulk), 3:16.25; 2. Coronado, 3:28.01; 3. Cooper, 3:35.28.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock High swimmer Ellis Fox sets 3 records, nets 4 district titles