Agon is the proud sponsor of all high school coverage (recruiting, results, state championships, etc.) on SwimmingWorld.com. For more information about Agon, visit their website Agonswim.com.
STUART – The Bolles School continued its reign at the top of the Florida 1A high school swimming and diving mountain, handily winning the girls’ and boys’ team titles in what turned out to be Sergio Lopez’s final stint as head coach for the storied programs.
Earlier this week, Lopez announced that he accepted a position as head coach at the Singapore Sports Institute. It was a strong performance for the Bolles school, continuing a 30-year winning tradition.
The Bolles girls amassed 425 points to blow away the competition. Pine Crest was second with 231 points, while Saint Andrew’s barely got third place with 179.5 points. Lake Highland just missed out on third with 179 points.
On the boys’ side, Bolles scored 495.5 points, well ahead of the 165 scored by Cardinal Mooney School and the 163 by Lake Highland Prep.
Boys’ championship
The Sharks won all three relays and three individual events in the boys’ meet. All three relay swims could rank at or near the top of the national standings, with a 1:29.46 in the 200 medley as one of the standout swims. Andy Song An (22.86 backstroke), James Daugherty (24.93 breaststroke), Javier Barrena (21.96 butterfly) and Andrea Vergani (19.71 freestyle) got within 1.4 seconds of the mind-boggling state record posted in 2012 by a Bolles relay that included Ryan Murphy and Joseph Schooling. Cardinal Mooney could only settle for a distant second in that relay with a 1:35.92, while Community School took third with a 1:36.56.
A 3:01.85 in the 400 free relay will be tough to beat as well. Vergani (44.34), Tyler Rice (44.75), Hagen Dietrich (47.19) and Scott Bole (45.57) put up a time that gave Bolles a five-second victory over Cardinal Mooney (3:06.73). Lake Highland Prep was third with a 3:07.89.
Bolles posted a strong 1:23.30 in the 200 free relay. Vergani (20.40), Rice (20.65), Wiley Watson (21.18) and Dietrich (21.07) won by three seconds over Clearwater Central Catholic, who was second with a 1:26.27. Lake Highland Prep took third with a 1:26.32.
Rice, Vergani and Daugherty picked up three individual event wins for Bolles. Rice, a junior national finalist, posted a 20.81 as the only sub-21 second 50 freestyler in the meet. Anton Voronin of North Broward Prep was second with a 21.15 and Nicholas Conrad of Saint Andrew’s was third with a 21.24.
Vergani got the win in the 100 free over Rice, 44.29 to 44.88. Voronin was third with a 46.33. In the 100 breast, Daugherty won by two seconds, posting a 55.37 for the victory. Joshua Monacelli of Lake Highland Prep was second with a 57.37 while Joshua Chen of Shorecrest Prep took third with a 57.51.
Bolles nearly won a few other events, but lost races in the final strokes. Austin Katz kept Bolles from a win in the 200 freestyle, posting a 1:38.20 to overtake Bolles’ Scott Bole on the final 50 yards. Bole settled for second with a 1:38.23 while Cameron Newton of Clearwater Central Catholic placed third with a 1:40.70. Katz also won the 100 backstroke with a 48.82, overpowering Bolles’ Song An in the final 50. Song An finished second with a 49.64, while Matthew Garcia of Cardinal Mooney was third with a 49.79.
Sagemont’s Mateo Gonzalez took the 200 IM with a 1:49.65, charging home ahead of Bolles’ Joey Carbone, who was second with a 1:49.90. Barrena scored third for Bolles with a 1:51.29. Gonzalez was back for the 100 fly and won that in more convincing fashion with a 48.06. Barrena took second with a 49.19 while Carbone placed third with a 49.59.
Santi Corredor of Bishop Verot pulled away from Bolles’ Bole in the final 100 yards of the 500 freestyle final, posting a win with a 4:29.03. Bole placed second with a 4:30.32 while Patrick Groters of University School placed third with a 4:31.82.
Austin Fields gave Pine Crest a win in the meet, scoring 490.45 points to win the boys’ 1-meter diving. Frostproof’s Robby Costine was second with a score of 479.55, while Alex Farrow of Seacrest Country was third with a score of 452 points.
Girls’ championship
The Bolles’ girls’ team only managed to win the three relays, but placed plenty of swimmers in the top eight en route to their big team win. Kasey Schmidt, bound for Virginia next year, was on all three winning relays. Schmidt teamed up with Abi Wilder, Annie Kyriakidis and Natasha Gvakharia Mgebrishvi to post a 1:42.44 in the 200 medley relay ahead of the 1:43.11 by Pine Crest and the 1:43.27 by Trinity Prep.
Schmidt – along with Claire Rasmus, Kyriakidis and Christi Riley — helped Bolles win the 200 free relay by nearly three seconds with a 1:33.71, beating out the 1:36.03 by Montverde and the 1:36.09 by Pine Crest. Bolles was equally dominant in the 400 free relay with a 3:23.64. The foursome of Schmidt, Rasmus, Gvakharia Mgebrishvi and Riley nearly beat Saint Andrew’s state record of 3:23.43 from 2012, but was good enough to earn the title ahead of the 3:26.66 by this year’s team from Saint Andrew’s and the 3:29.15 by Montverde.
By swimming in all three relays, Schmidt could only participate in one individual event, and finished second in the 50 free with a 22.66 behind Pine Crest’s Marta Ciesla, who won with a 22.60. Claire Maiocco of Trinity Prep was third with a 23.30. Ciesla returned to win the 100 free as well with a 49.57, the only swim under 50 seconds in the final. Katie Schorr of Montverde was second with a 50.24, while Abby Burke took third with a 50.82.
Megan Moroney of Saint Andrew’s was another double event winner, starting with a 1:45.89 that just missed out on Lauren Driscoll’s four-year-old state record of 1:45.37. She wasn’t challenged in the race, as Abby Burke of Lake Highland Prep was a distant second with a 1:48.56. Rasmus placed third with a 1:49.40. Moroney missed out on another state record in winning the 100 fly, posting a 53.96 that came within a whisker of Chelsie Britt’s 53.83 from 2010. Moroney had a major challenge on her hands in the final, coming from a seven-tenths deficit to beat Maiocco by a slim margin, 53.96 to 53.97. Jessica Nava of Westminster Academy took third 54.05.
Carley Lowe of Lake Highland Prep and Tampa Catholic’s Christin Rockway waged a stroke-for-stroke battle in the 200 IM final, with Lowe taking the win in 2:01.40 to Rockway’s 2:01.42. Kyriakidis finished third with a 2:01.96 after holding a slight lead after breaststroke.
Katie Duggan of Lake Highland Prep had no problem winning the 500 freestyle, posting a 4:46.05 to beat Kahra Williams of P.K. Yonge by three seconds. Williams’ 4:49.28 also handily beat the 4:51.14 by Kendall Dawson of Montverde.
Abby Duncan posted a one-second victory in the 100 backstroke with a 54.06, as Abi Wilder of Bolles settled for second with a 55.49. Duggan settled for a third-place finish with a 55.58. In the 100 breast, Lindsey Swartz of Pine Crest won the title with a 1:03.78 in a close battle with Rachael Bradford-Feldman of Saint Andrew’s, who took second with a 1:03.99. Savannah Savitt of Tampa Prep placed third with a 1:04.15.
Carolyn Chaney of Pine Crest posted 498.60 points to win the 1-meter diving competition by nearly 60 points. Westminster Academy’s Johanna Holloway placed second with 438.75 points and Maia Goldstein of 427.95 was third with 427.95 points.
Results: Florida 1A high school swimming and diving championships
Marta Ciesla is just a sophomore.
Give her a couple of years and she’ll be swimming times that’ll make Simone Manuel blush!
TC’s swimmer is Christin Rockway, not Christina. Please fix!
Thanks for the heads up! Fixed!
Thank you!