Highlands haul headed to swim regionals

By DAN HOEHNE

daniel.hoehne@newssun.com

Swimmers from Highlands County will be heading in different directions this week, both positive ones, as a slew of swimmers advanced to the state regionals - and that's even before the multitude of times from the other district meets sort out what could be an even fuller field of Dragons, Devils and Blue Streaks.

Showing the depth that lead to the high numbes of individuals moving on, Lake Placid won both the boys and girls side of the District 7-1A meet at the Rowdy Gaines Pool in Winter Haven Wednesday, with the boys totaling 498 points to outdistance All Saints at 362, while the girls tallied 451 points to stay ahead of Lakeland Christian's 384 and All Saints' 366.

Dragon swimmers who came away with outright wins to automatically qualify for Saturday's regional at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando were the Boys 200-Meter Freestyle Relay team of Bobby Greene, David Samperi, Kevin Smit and Dylan Weber-Callahan with a time of 1:38.22; Weber-Calahan in the 200 Free (2:09.83); Tammi Beach with a win in the 100-Meter Backstroke in 1:09.68 and the 50-Free in 27.16; and the Boys 200-Meter Medley Relay foursome of Matthew Padovano, Jerquaid Quinn, Smit and Greene in 1:52.87.

Those who may not have earned spots with a win, but are definitively in the running to fill out the rest of the field with strong times and finishes included Rachel Cope and her second-place finish in the 200 Individual Medley in 2:36.47 and fourth in the 100 Breaststroke, Weber-Callahan's second in the 50-Free and Greene's third in the same event.

Shannon Cummings, in addition to winning the diving event, took second in the 100 Butterfly (1:11.61) and Smit took second on the boys side of that event in 1:01.51 and third in the 200 IM.

Shannon Pastrion took second in the 500 Free, Shannon Viox was second in the 100 Back and Quinn was a close runner-up in the 100 Breaststroke and Greene took third in the 50 Free.

Avon Park's Will Odham took second in the 100 Free to keep him in strong consideration for regionals, and teammate Mitch Guerndt kept himself in the running with a third-place finish in the 200 Free.

Lake Placid's Padovano took third in the Boys 100 Back and fourth in the 500 Free; and two girls relay teams are likely to move on with as Beach, Viox, Cope and Cummings were third in the 200 Free Relay (1:54.70) and the 400 Free Relay (4:16.36).

The Boys 400-Free Relay team of Weber-Callahan, Tayler Allcorn, Edwin Velazquez and Samperi are in the running with a third in their event.

Also at Rowdy Gaines on Thursday, Sebring had it's share of regional qualifiers with the girls, as a team, taking second (362 points) in the 12-team field and the boys fourth (266 points).

Kara Burger took an outright win in the 100 Butterfly in 1:06.80, shaving more than three seconds off her preliminary time.

Michael Bickman won the boys side of the event in 1:01.78 to stamp his ticket and Brian Miller did the same when he won the 100 Breaststroke in 1:09.39.

Putting themselves in good stead to move on to their regional at the Florida Gulf Coast Pool in Estero Thursday with second-place finishes were Burger in the 200 IM (2:31.47), Julie Kirsh in the 50 and 100 Free (27.83, 1:01.29), Josh Heflin in the 50 and 100 Free (24.32, 53.98), and the Girls 400 Free Relay team of Burger, Kirsch, McKenzie Hargadan and Katelyn Bryan (4:20.60).

Bryan, Burger, Kirsch and Marissa Parson teamed up for third in the Girls 200 Medley Relay in 2:15.25 to keep their hopes within reach, as did the quartet of George Dumont, Miller, Bickman and Heflin in the Boys 200 Medley (1:57.64).

Hargaden was third in Girls Diving, with 352.60 points, and while just outside the top two to automatically qualify, her score was well above the 280 needed for consideration.

Bryan was third in the 100 Back (1:17.94), the relay team of Heflin, Miller, Brian Ortiz and Richard Karl was third in the 400 Free, Bickman fourth in the Boys 100 Back (1:14.29) and Jessica Todd took fourth in the 500 Free (6:57.97) to put themselves in the running for regional berths.

Whatever the final numbers wash out as, Highlands County will surely be well represented in the next stage of state swimming.