As Central High School swimming coach David Hague enters his 30th year in that capacity, he has one familiar scenario with his team and one that isn't so familiar.

Just as it did last year and several times during his tenure, his varsity girls team features a lot of depth. His varsity boys team does not include a single senior. Under those circumstances, the Central teams will attempt to defend their District 3-5A titles they swept at the league meet a year ago. Five of Central's main scorers from last year's district co-champion team graduated, leaving only three swimmers that did score at district on this year's team. Juniors Matt McLaughlin and Sebastian Haynes lead that trio. McLaughlin won the 500-yard freestyle and finished second in the 200 freestyle at district last year and qualified for the state meet in the 200 for the second straight year. Haynes finished third in the 200 and 500 freestyle races at that meet. The other returning scorer is junior Zach Daniel. Daniel was fifth in the 100 and 200 freestyle races. Hague said his second tier of male swimmers includes junior Eric Faust, sophomore Vic Meyer, junior Daniel McClellan, junior Noah Lozada, freshman John Hague, sophomore Nathan Kinney, freshman Hunter Haby and sophomore Matt Lozada. "We are just pretty raw," Hague said. "We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores with not much experience. They didn't go to district last year. It is going to be a big maturing year."

While the boys team includes no seniors, the girls team only has two - Whitney Stout and Haleigh Williamson. Stout was fourth in the 200 freestyle, while Williamson was sixth in the 200 freestyle and second in the 100 backstroke at last year's district meet. However, the team does include several other swimmers that scored at district last year, including sophomore Alex Porter, who was second in the 200 freestyle and fifth in the 100 freestyle. Also returning are juniors Andrea Maciejewski, Bailee Sawyer and Drew Thieman. "We have a lot of depth, again," Hague said. "We have about four or five girls that scored last year. I think it is going to be tough." Hague expects the girls team from Odessa High to be the team to beat this year with Midland Lee following closely behind. He expects Midland High to battle his squad for third place. On the boys' side, Hague expects Odessa High to win the district championship after tying the Bobcats for last year's crown. Hague's predictions have Odessa Permian second, Central third and Midland Lee fourth. "I feel next year will be our year," Hague said. "This year, I have a feeling we are going to finish third at district right now, looking at what it looks like. But you never know."