Another Wild summer ahead

Summer’s here and it’s time to get Wild in the water.

The Weatherford Wild swim team is set to begin another summer of competition this weekend as they host their own meet at Cherry Park Pool on Saturday, June 6. It’s the first of three regular-season meets for the squad, which features swimmers in ages groups 6-Under to adult.

The Wild competes in the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation.

At this year’s tryouts a few weeks ago, the team had around 100 try with about 40 making the cut to compete. Head coach Matt Williams said the team will begin the season with around 130 swimmers.

The team practices at Cherry Park on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Williams said he is grateful the City of Weatherford works with his team for valuable practice time, considering it is the only public pool in Parker County.

Following their own meet, which will include the Walsh Swim Team, the Wild will compete at the Ridglea Pool Association Meet on June 13. Then, they will travel to Granbury - as will Walsh - for a meet hosted by the SEALS on June 20.

Once the regular season ends comes the TAAF Region IV Meet on July 11-12 at the Elise Cerami Aquatic Center in Southlake. Those who advance will be qualified to compete in the TAAF Summer Games of Texas on July 30-Aug. 2 in Bryan/College Station.

“Our schedule looks great this summer. Should be able to see some good competition before regionals and then head to state in college station,” Williams said. 

Highlights from last season at state for the Wild include Cullen Costello winning the program’s lone gold medal (100-yard individual medley), along with a silver medal (50 breaststroke) in the Boys 13-14 age group. He also joined Max Gentry, Kody Burlison, and Bowen Judd to win a pair of bronze medals on the Boys 13-14 200 medley and freestyle relays.

Also, Williams captured a pair of silvers in the Men 25-39 age group in the 50 breaststroke and 100 IM. Katie Edwards paced the females, bringing home a pair of bronze medals (50 free, 50 butterfly) in the 40-Over division.

Williams also announced the return of Chloe Brumfield, who won a gold medal in 2023 in the Girls 8-Under Division (25 backstroke) and advanced to state in three events in 2024 in the 9-10 age group, but opted not to swim last season.

“We also have a couple of older swimmers this year coming in to add to our over-18 age group,” Williams said.

However, there is more to the Wild than competition, Williams noted.

“For younger swimmers we can focus primarily on stroke development along with conditioning,” he said. “For the older swimmers we have started to gain a lot of local and non-local high school swimmers come in for off-season conditioning.”

Weatherford High School competed in swimming for the first time in its history in the 2025-26 school year. Costello and Zach Edwards of the Wild competed for the Kangaroos and qualified for the Class 6A Region I Meet as part of the 200 freestyle relay.