Beau Barras summed up his performance at the Louisiana Long Course State Championships fairly simply.
Barras, a 10-year-old who attends South Live Oak Elementary, claimed a pair of state championships during event, which was held July 9-12 at the LSU Natatorium while swimming for Tiger Aquatics.
“I feel great,” he said after scoring 96 points in his individual events.
“I wasn’t expecting to do this well, but I knew I was going to do pretty good,” he continued. “It kind of just happened for me. I normally don’t really care about my points as long as I just swim good, but whenever I do look at my points, I realize that I did really good.”
Barras won the boys 10 and under 50-meter butterfly in a time of 35.94 seconds, which he said set the tone for his weekend.
“Whenever I dove of the block, I felt pretty good, but I had to finish it off really good, so I started really fast, and in the middle, I tried to hold the pace until the finish,” Barras said of the 50-meter race. “I looked up at the scoreboard and I saw that I was first and I was kind of relieved because I knew I was seeded first but I knew I there was a kid right next to me with a similar time.”
He also claimed the boys 10 and under 100-meter butterfly title (1:25.53).
He had a preliminary time of 1:29.06 in the 100-meter butterfly and 36.47 in the 50-meter butterfly.
Barras finished fourth in the boys 10 and under 100-meter backstroke (1:27.10) and the 50-meter backstroke (40.00).
He finished sixth in the 10 and under 100-meter freestyle (1:19.49) and the 50-meter freestyle (35.13).
In the boys 10 and under 200-meter freestyle relay, Ozzy McCall, Samuel Fruge, Damien Franco and Barras finished third (2:42.43). McCall, Fruge, Barras and Franco were also third in the 200-meter medley relay (3:00.67).
A group including Barras, Addison Willis, Addisyn Dicus, Ethan Brunet, Elena Woodrich, Rosie Ashford and Sadie Morgan trains at PARDS with Denham Springs High swimming coach Margot May.
Tiger Aquatics finished fifth in the team standings (1,295 points) after finishing 11th as a team last season.
Barras said he’s proud to be a part of building the Tiger Aquatics program in Livingston Parish.
“I feel good because I know that more kids will want to join since they know that we win and we practice hard and we train hard,” he said.
Crawfish Aquatics was first (4,087.5 points), followed by Hurricane Swim Club (1652.5 points), Franco’s Fins (1,623) and Swimpac (1,481).
It was Barras’ last meet of the summer, and he’ll start with the new season in September. He said he plans on relaxing and practicing.
“I’m going to try to take it kind of easy because I went so fast and hard at state,” he said of last week’s practice.
Barras said he’s looking to make zones when he turns 11 and has a goal of making the Olympics.
“I’m going to try to go to practice four days a week, but if I can’t, it’s because I have other sports to do,” he said, noting he also plays football, basketball and baseball. “It’s kind of crammed in, but they’re all different seasons.”
Brunet, Parker Dreher, Andrew Fruge and Benet Meyer finished 10th in the boys 14 and under 400-meter freestyle (4:17.41), while Dreher, Nicholas Fu, Jack Leonards and Brunet finished 16th (5:21.88) in the boys 14 and under 400-meter medley relay.
In the boys 14 and under 200-meter freestyle relay, Brunet, Dreher, Charlie Kilgore and Meyer were ninth (1:53.36), while Andrew Fruge, Andre Lafleur, Samuel Fruge and Barras finished 16th (2:13.05).
Dreher, Samuel Fruge, Barras and Ethan Brunet finished 16th (2:29.34) in the boys 14 and under 200-meter medley relay.
Willis, Dicus, Kailey Price and Maddie Newman were fifth in the girls 200-meter freestyle relay (2:04.95), while Dicus, Eleanor Rowe, Olivia Franco and Lucy Franco finished 11th in the girls 14 and under 400-meter medley relay (5:23:33).
Dicus, Andrew Fruge, Caroline Fruge and Meyer finished seventh in the mixed 14 and under 200-meter medley relay (2:10.68).
Dicus was sixth in the girls 13-14 100-meter freestyle (1:06.12), and tied for 18th (1:18.42), while Willis was 35th (1:23.67) in the girls 13-14 100-meter backstroke preliminaries.
Dicus finished ninth in the girls 13-14 50-meter freestyle (29.95), 10th in the 12th (32.96) in the girls 13-14 50-meter butterfly and 22nd in the girls 13-14 200-meter individual medley preliminaries (3:03.70).
In the girls 13-14 50-meter backstroke, Dicus was 11th (35.03). Willis had a preliminary time of 36.43 to finish 17th and just missed qualifying for the final.
In the girls 10 and under 200-meter freestyle relay, Lane Mackey, Morgan, Amelie Franco and Paisley Arbour finished sixth (2:38.52). Willis, Juliette Lafleur, Maddie Newman and Dicus finished seventh in the girls 14 and under 200-meter medley relay (2:21.07).
Mackey, Arbour, Amelie Franco and Ashford finished eighth in the girls 10 and under 200-meter medley relay (2:59.25).
Woodrich was 40th in the girls 11-12 50-meter breaststroke (48.45) preliminaries.
