Robert E. Lee senior David Hudson had a lot to overcome Saturday in his 200-yard individual medley final at the Class 6A Region 3 swimming and diving championships at Rockwall ISD Aquatic Center.

Thanks to a lackluster performance Friday in prelims, Hudson’s time meant he was forced to start in Lane 1. This meant he would get the waves and drag from all of the other swimmers inside of him.

Hudson persevered to finish fifth overall in a time of 1 minute, 53.70 seconds, shaving almost three seconds off his prelim time. The regional champion in the event was Dallas Jesuit’s Brendan Feehery (1:51.46). Feehery qualifies automatically to state, along with the other seven regional champions with the next eight best times overall also punching their tickets to Austin.

Lee coach Matt Franks said he believes Hudson’s time booked him a spot at state later this month.

“David should be the seventh pickup to state in the 200 IM,” Franks said. “For him to do that considering they had him in Lane 1 makes it even more impressive.”

Hudson followed up his 200 IM performance by breaking the REL school record to win the boys consolation final in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 52.21. That placed him ninth overall in the event. Jason Park of Allen won the 100 backstroke final in a time of 50.25.

“David really capped off the meet with the possibility of going to state and then breaking a school record,” Franks said.

REL senior Lauren Lewis also was a consolation champion, finishing first in girls 200 freestyle in a time of 2:04.02, which placed her ninth overall in the event. Teammate Delaney Mayfield was seventh in the consolation (2:09.08) and 15th overall.

In the girls 500 freestyle finals, Lewis finished eighth in a time of 5:30.82. Emma Wagner of Allen won the event in a time of 5:02.44.

As a team, the Lee boys finished 11th overall with 58 points, with the Lee girls also finishing 11th with 74 points. Southlake Carroll swept the meet. The SLC boys totaled 489 points, with the SLC girls grabbing up 453 points. Both teams won the region by more than 100 points.

The Lee girls and boys relay teams all reached consolation finals in Friday’s prelims with the Lee girls 200 medley relay (Anna Ji, Mallory Baker, Zoe Francisco, Mayfield), finishing 11th in a time of 2:07.27, while the boys 200 medley relay (Tyler Cargile, Matthew Spellman, Alex Docherty, Xander Wick) took 13th in a time 1:54.72.

The Lee girls 200 freestyle relay (Lewis, Lydia Rutherford, Mayfield, Kelsi Oldham) was 11th in a time of 1:49.71, with the boys 200 freestyle relay (Hudson, Docherty, Jack Hager, Ethan Sukiennek) also finishing 11th in a time of 1:35.42.

The Lee girls 400 freestyle relay (Ji, Rutherford, Francisco, Lewis) was 11th in a time of 3:59.83, with the boys 400 freestyle relay (Hudson, Wick, Hager, Sukiennek) finishing 12th in a time of 3:32.1.

Others who competed Saturday in consolation finals were: Sukiennek (boys 200 freestyle, 15th, 1:55.73; 500 freestyle, 16th, 5:14.66), Francisco (girls 200 IM, 13th, 2:25.94), Docherty (boys 100 butterfly, 14th, 1:00.29), Ji (girls 100 backstroke, 15th, 1:07.90).

“The kids did an amazing job in a very tough environment,” Franks said. “With the limited experience we have as a team I couldn’t be more excited with our performance. The swims today were the perfect way to cap our team’s season.”