14 Schools That Scored at Last Year’s State Meets Face Realignment in Texas HS Swimming

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

Texas High School Realignments

• Class 6A realignments
• Class 5A realignments
• Class 4A realignments
• Old Classification ranking
• New Classification ranking

The University Interscholastic League (UIL), which governs most public high school sports in the state of Texas, has announced realignment for the 2024-2025 academic year, and 13 (+1) schools that scored at 2024 State Championship meets will be on the move.

In Texas, high schools are generally organized into classifications by enrollment, though there are some exceptions. For example, Strake Jesuit and Dallas Jesuit, the only two schools allowed to compete with public schools, are required to compete in the largest classification, which is currently 6A. Other charter, magnet, or open enrollment schools also compete in 6A.

The 2023-2024 season was just the second where the state had three public school categories, 4A (smallest schools), 5A (medium-sized schools), and 6A (largest schools). Of course everything is relative, and in Texas, where everything is bigger, the biggest 4A schools still have north of 1,300 students enrolled.

The new alignments will hold for two seasons.

Three schools moved from Class 6A to Class 5A after scoring at last year’s state meet: Austin Anderson (39th girls/17th boys); Ft. Worth Paschal (26th boys); and Pflugerville Weiss (55th boys).

They were replaced by six schools that moved up from Class 5A to Class 6A: Richmond Foster (8th girls/9th boys); Lamar Fulshear (2nd girls/18th boys); Magnolia (27th girls/23rd boys); Northwest (36th girls/32nd boys); Comal Canyon (41st girls); and Manvel (51st girls). Many of these schools are either new or in rapidly-expanding outer suburbs of major metropolitan areas.

Lamar Fulshear, for example, opened in fall 2016 and had an enrolment of 2,133 students at the last reclassification but has grown to 2,925. That team placed 2nd at the girls’ 5A State Championship meet last year.

That team included Kailey Kennedy, the 2024 5A State Champion in the 50 free (22.94) and 100 fly (54.40) last season as a senior who will head to Texas A&M in the fall. Avery Dillon, a rising senior and TCU commit, won the 500 free state title last year for Fulshear (4:52.56) and would have placed 6th at the 6A meet.

Foster High School, the other most-successful program of that group, opened in 2001, but is situated in unincorporated Fort Bend County. That county is growing at an average rate of 4% per year, and the school has kept pace, growing from 2,199 students in 2022 to 2,600 in 2024.

While no schools moved from 5A to 4A, four schools did promote from 4A to 5A (plus a fifth sort of). Boerne High (3rd girls/7th boys); New Caney West Fork (20th girls/12th boys); Alvin Iowa Colony (29th girls/19th boys); and Alice (33rd girls/14th boys) all move up to 5A. Meanwhile, Wichita Falls High School (22nd boys) will close and be replaced by a pair of Class 5A schools – Legacy and Memorial.

SwimSwam: 14 Schools That Scored at Last Year’s State Meets Face Realignment in Texas HS Swimming