County teams chase Bolles at state meet
The FHSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships will take place Thursday through Saturday, but for the Class 1A teams from Broward and Palm Beach counties, last Saturday sure felt like a mini- state meet.
With numerous automatic All- American and AllAmerican consideration times posted by swimmers who mostly had yet to shave or taper, the Region 4- 1A meet provided a preview of what should be an intense competition this Saturday at the Central Florida YMCA Aquatic Center in Orlando.
It’ll likely be for the top spots behind Jacksonville Bolles, whose boys have won 24 consecutive state titles and girls have won 21 straight.
“You have Bolles, who is very good and they’re going to be favored to win, but who’s going to be second, third or fourth? It’s going to be people from this region,” said Pine Crest coach Jay Fitzgerald, whose girls team won the Region 4- 1A title andboys finished runner- up.
“It’s going to come down to Pine Crest, St. Andrew’s and American Heritage [ Plantation]. It just shows that there is more depth and more power in this region and this area than the rest of the state combined.”
Said American Heritage coach Nobutaka Tan: “I know [ Bolles] will show us the powerhouse they are. But I don’t want our kids to just to sit back and watch them. Iwantthemto participate and compete.”
Added St. Andrew’s coach Sid Cassidy: “Wewere fifth in boys and thirdingirls last year at states and our goal is to move up. That’s been a theme of ours. We want to be better.”
Meanwhile, in 3A, St. Thomas Aquinas boys coach Marty Grady predicts five teams have a chance to win the boys’ state championship: defending state champ Palm Harbor, Boca Raton, Miami Palmetto, Sarasota and his Raiders. St. Thomas finished second at last year’s state meet.
Meanwhile, St. Thomas’ girls, who won the Region 4- 3A title largely due to the performance of the freshmen, are shooting for a top- 10 finish.
“I will be real excitedwith that this year,” said Raiders girls coach Jimmy Parmenter.
Individually, Western’s Alexa Elkins is seeded second in girls diving in 3A. Pine Crest sophomore Carolyn Chaney, who won district and regional titles this season, is hopeful of defending her Class 1A state diving championship.
“The pressure has definitely doubled for me to do well this year,” Chaney said. “I was speechless when I won. The feeling was indescribable and I hope it happens again.”
Taravella’s Keegan BoissonYates, who competes for Trinidad and Tobago internationally, is seeded second in the boys 100 butterfly and third in the 100 backstroke and fellow Trojan Ilya ( Alex) Evdokimov is seeded second in the100 breastroke.
In 2A on Friday, Fort Lauderdale’s Lance Rutkin is seeded second in the 500 free and third in the 200 free.
In 1A, Heritage’s Daniel Spas is seeded second in the boys 50 free and 100 free and Sagemont’s Jemal Legrand is the top seed in the100 free andNo. 2 in the 200 free.
Westminster Academy’s Carolina Nava ( 50 free), Pine Crest’s Brittany Hammond ( 500 free) and Kent Haeffner ( 500 free), and South Florida Heat’s Clara Smiddy ( 100 backstroke) also are all top seeds.