In 2009 sports stories,Cragin rates No. 5

In 2009 sports stories,Cragin rates No. 5

In the past several years, there have been plenty of star athletes at Friendswood High School.

On the football field, Jacob Karam (Texas Tech), Will Ebner (Missouri) and Andre Gautreaux (Rice) lit up opponents and the scoreboard at Henry Winston Stadium.

Alex Anastas (Houston) proved to be a pitcher’s nightmare on the baseball diamond.

Annalisa Hall (Oklahoma signee) has been unstoppable in basketball and soccer. Byron Randle (Sam Houston State signee) also has been a force on the basketball court.

But when determining the best athlete at Friendswood in the last three years, the one who dominated his sport the most, there is no competition. Cole Cragin broke a 10-year-old national swimming record and in the process cemented his status as a future Olympian.

His record-setting season is The Daily News’ No. 5 sports story of the year.

Cragin already was one of the top swimmers in Texas, setting state records in the 100-yard butterfly and backstroke his junior season.

Three years ago, Cragin was the first Friendswood swimmer to win an individual state title. After his junior year, that number was up to four.

But Cragin had higher goals in his final high school season before heading to the University of Texas to be a part of the Longhorn swimming team.

One of those was once again going undefeated in all district or regional races. He accomplished that feat for the third straight season.

Heading into the 2009 state swim meet in February, Cragin said he didn’t just want to win state titles in the 100-yard butterfly and backstroke again — he wanted to break the 48-second barrier in both events.

His state record in the backstroke was 48.63 seconds, giving him reason to be confident.

“I feel pretty good in the water right now,” Cragin said before the meet. “I’ve been training hard enough to do that. I think it’s pretty doable.”

He got off to a nice start in the preliminary heats of the Class 4A championships, posting times of 48.02 seconds in the backstroke and 48.63 seconds in the butterfly. Both marks beat his previous state records.

The next day, Cragin won the state title in the butterfly with a time of 48.46 seconds, again setting a new state record. But that accomplishment almost went unnoticed after what he did in the backstroke.

I happened to be at a Friendswood baseball game when I got the news via text, and I was sure to pass it along to be announced to the crowd — Cragin has broken the national record in the backstroke.

Cragin swam the finals in 46.75 seconds, breaking the 10-year-old mark of 46.82 set by Alex Lim in 1999. The time would have ranked him 14th among all NCAA Division I swimmers this season.

As soon as Cragin touched the wall, he said he knew he had just broken the national mark.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to break the record, so it’s pretty unbelievable,” he said. “I was just in shock.”

The state title gave him six in his high school career. It also earned him the National High School Coaches Association senior boys swimmer of the year honors later in the summer. He was just one of four Texas athletes to be honored by the organization.

Cragin is already off to a hot start at Texas, posting a 48.88 second mark in the 100-backstroke, a provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA national championships. He also is racing in the 200-backstroke, as well as several medley relay teams for the Longhorns.

As for the record, Cragin said he hopes it holds up at least as long as the one he broke.

“I guess I will just be watching it for years to come,” Cragin said. “It’s kind of hard to say how long it will hold up right now. I’ll have to take it year by year. But I hope it lasts a while.”