Southern Zones: Florida Concludes Meet With Overall Victories

By David Rieder

ATLANTA, Georgia, July 31. THE teams representing the Florida LSC swept the titles in the girls’ and boys’ competition at the Southern Zones meet in Atlanta. Florida won the girls’ competition convincingly, but they just edged out Georgia for the boys’ top prize. 13-14 swimmers played a big role in the competition for the title, and many clocked faster times than their 15-18 counterparts, as had been the case many times throughout the meet. Florida’s Rachel Harrington remained the meet’s top swimmer on the final evening of long course meters competition, with a fifth podium finish for the meet. Southeastern’s Christian Carbone posted the top performance of the session, with two top-three finishes, including a win in the 200 fly.

Florida’s Ashley Reid took down Southeastern’s Savannah Napier in the girls’ 200 IM, clocking 2:22.87, while Napier, the 400 IM champion on Friday, finished at 2:23.85. Georgia’s Megan Faulkner touched third in 2:24.59. Gold Coast’s Evandro Silva took the boys’ 200 IM in 2:08.88, just a tenth ahead of Louisiana’s Colin Babcock, while Carbone clocked a third-place time of 2:09.66. However, 14-year-old Gunnar Bentz of Georgia easily had the fastest time of the day, at 2:07.03 in the 13-14 age group event.

Florida’s Kaitlyn Dressel took the girls’ 50 free in 27.02, while Georgia’s Rachel Astles touched out Southeastern’s Cora McKenzie, 27.39 to 27.49. The top time of the day, however, belonged to the 13-14 age group again, as Georgia’s Caitlin Cooper clocked 27.00. Louisiana went 1-2 in the boys’ 50 free, with Austin Butler winning in 24.14, ahead of teammate Phillip Gallego’s 24.36. Gold Coast’s Daniel Spas rounded out the top three in 24.40.

Georgia’s Lydia Jones won the girls’ 200 fly in 2:19.37, while Harrington touched second in 2:20.39. Florida’s Angela Algee rounded out the podium finishers, clocking 2:21.90. Carbone returned for a strong win in the boys’ 200 fly, posting a time of 2:06.37. Florida’s Ty Rocca stormed home past Gold Coast’s Austin Manganiello to take second, in a time of 2:07.77, while Manganiello faded to third in 2:07.97.

Florida wrapped up a dominant girls’ competition with a win in the 200 free relay in 1:49.11, with swimmers Dressel, Kelsey Frantz, Algee, and Harrington. Gold Coast, meanwhile, took the boys’ relay, with Spas, Silva, Michael Christian, and Andres Reyes-Capo clocking 1:36.69, just one one-hundredth ahead of Louisiana.

Florida won the girls’ Zones meet with 617.5 points. They won by more than 100 points over Georgia, who finished a clear second with 483 points, while Kentucky rounded out the top three with 397.5 points. Florida and Georgia also went 1-2 in boys’ competition, with a much smaller 12.5 point margin, 499.5 points to 487 points. North Carolina also scored more than 400 points, with a third-ranked total of 411 points.

Swimming World high school intern David “The Swim Geek” Rieder is a high school swimmer in Charleston, S.C. He swims for the Southern Marlins Racing Team and often negative splits his races. He can be found on the web at swimdr549.blogspot.com and twitter.com/david2swim.

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