Freshman Sophianne Cortes represented Saginaw High School at the UIL 5A State Swimming Meet on Feb. 17-18 at the swimming center at the University of Texas at Austin. Cortes is the first Saginaw swimmer to advance to the state meet in school history. She qualified for the state meet as the 5A Region 1 champion in the 50-yard Freestyle event. "Sophianne is a true competitor that has been working toward being a Rough Rider athlete since first grade," said Saginaw swim coach Jason Giles. "She has four individual school records, and she puts equal focus on lifting her teammates up with her. This is one of the reasons our swimming team had a record number of regional qualifiers and finalists this season, and I couldn't be more proud of her for not only being Saginaw's first state qualifier but also for the tremendous effort that led to her Top 10 finish in the finals." Sophianne swam a time of 24.29 seconds in prelims and 24.25 seconds in finals to place her as the tenth fastest 50-yard Freestyle swimmer in the state of Texas in conference 5A. “I’m proud of how well our team did this year," said Sophianne. "I’m looking forward to going even further next year, hopefully with more teammates competing at State with me!” The future of swimming is bright for the Rough Riders. Congratulations Sophianne!