In Orlando, Florida, the Southern Zone South Section Championship Meet began tonight with timed finals in distance freestyle and 200 meter relays.
Tonight’s individual events featured the men’s 800-meter freestyle and women’s 1500-meter freestyle. Neither are the Olympic event distances for the men and women, but it didn’t stop the athletes from coming up with some fast times.
Ariel S Finke came into the Women’s 1500m seeded third, but after shaving off over 15 seconds; she claimed the gold in a time of 16:36.23. Ariel held a blistering pace of 1:06 per 100 through the main part of the 1500m. Ariel will be a Florida State Seminole this fall. Sister Autumn Finke, who swims at the University of Florida, finished second with a time of 16:49.04. Hopefully the sibling rival, going to rival schools, will make for an interesting 800m. later this weekend. Claiming bronze in this event was Kendall Brent. The 16 year old representing Swim Florida touched the wall in a time of 17:00.47.
In true Finke fashion, Robert Finke won the Men’s 800m by a little less than 5 seconds and swam a solid sub minute last 100m. The 15-year-old representing Saint Petersburg dropped 7 seconds to go 8:12.55. In a close race for second Blake Manganiello touched out Johannes Calloni by 0.14 seconds. They swam there 800-meters in 8:17.19 and 8:17.33 respectively.
In the first relay of the night, Scarlet Aquatics (Matea Samardzic, Rachel Stoddard, Morgan Pfaff, and Joanna Wu) won the Women’s 200 meter Medley in a time of 1:57.42. Bolles School Sharks finished in second going 1:58.14 and Trinity Prep Aquatics finished third going 1:58.60.
On the men’s side, Bolles School Sharks ‘B’ relay proved there was nothing B about the winning relay. Matthew Serra, Rio Kurihara, Will Davis, and William I Davis dropped a time of 1:45.84, to propel the Bolles School B Squad to the top of the podium. Saint Andrew’s Swimming and Bolles School Sharks ‘A’ relay fought out second place. Gage Kohner of Saint Andrew’s swam a 23.05 to stop the clock at 1:46.08 beating the Bolles School A team touching 1:46.24.
The women of Scarlet Aquatics came back in the 200-meter freestyle to win a very close touch out with Bolles School Sharks. The team composed of Joanna Wu, Meagan Kiely, Matea Samardzic, and Cynthia Wu combined to touch out the sharks by 0.06 seconds. The relays going 1:47.23 and 1:47.29 respectively, and Saint Andrew’s Swimming going 1:47.74 to round out the top three relays.
Saint Andrew’s Swimming blazed into the top podium spot, going 1:34.57 in the Men’s 200-meter freestyle relay. Gage Kohner, Luke Torres, Sidrell Williams, and Quinn Cassidy made a second and a half gap on second place Bolles School Sharks B finishing at 1:36.04. Meanwhile, Westminster Academy took home bronze finishing 1:36.59.
Through the first six events on the Men’s side Bolles School Sharks lead with 136 points with Scarlet Aquatics (99 points) and Saint Andrew’s Swimming (98 points )in 2nd and 3rd respectively. On the women’s side winning both relays tonight, Scarlet Aquatics Lead with 145 points and Bolles School Sharks with 114 in 2nd and Swim Florida with 114 points in third.
2015 Speedo Sectionals Orlando, Day One – Results