Southern Zone Championships: Rachel Harrington Takes Total Podiums Up to Four

By David Rieder

ATLANTA, Georgia, July 30. DURING the third and fourth evenings of long course meters competition at the Southern Zone Championships, Florida's Rachel Harrington added two more podium finishes to the two she had already earned during the meet's first two days. By the end of four days, both Florida's Ty Rocca and Southeastern's Christian Carbone had earned three podium finishes, taking a win each.

Georgia's Lily Tang opened the third night with a win in the girls' 200 back in a time of 2:19.32, more than a second ahead of Florida's Jessica Piper, who grabbed second in 2:20.45, while Kentucky's Konnor Rist ended up third in 2:20.83. Tang's teammate Thomas Nguyen grabbed first in the boys' 200 back, beating Kentucky's Robert Leasure (2:08.95) and Louisiana's Brian Carr (2:09.14).

Florida's Kaitlyn Dressel beat teammate Harrington to take the girls' 100 free, 58.65 to 58.96, with South Texas' Cori Gary wound up third in 59.28. Gold Coast's Daniel Spas held off Rocca for the win in the boys' version of the event, clocking 52.77, ahead of Rocca's 53.01, as well as North Carolina's Ollie Clayton-Luce, who clocked 53.64.

Southeastern teammates Savannah Napier and Carbone rounded out the evening by dominating 400 IM in their respective genders. Napier won the girls' event in a fast time of 4:57.84. Florida's Ashley Reid finished a distant second in 5:04.67, just ahead of North Carolina's Kiera Molloy, clocking 5:05.12. Carbone won the boys' event in 4:32.65, winning by almost four seconds ahead of Gold Coast's Samuel Smiddy and Louisiana's Colin Babcock, who rounded out the podium with respective times of 4:36.52 and 4:37.39.

Rist returned from a runner-up finish in the 200 back to win the 100 back, clocking 1:05.14 to narrowly beat Piper (1:05.33) and Tang (1:05.64). Louisiana's John Micheal Moore and Kentucky's Michael Scheid went 1-2 in the boys' 100 back, both breaking 1:00. They clocked respective times of 59.25 and 59.68, while Nguyen grabbed another podium with a third-place time of 1:00.20.

Georgia's Katie Evans moved up from third in the 200 breast to win the girls' 100 breast, clocking 1:14.32, while Louisiana's Cameron Balkom edged South Carolina's Lauryl Williams for second, 1:14.90 to 1:15.07. Babcock emerged with the win in the boys' 100 breast, clocking 1:06.01, a tenth ahead of Gold Coast's 1:06.11, while Carbone returned to take third in 1:06.69.

Harrington took her fourth podium as well as second win with a half-second victory in the 400 free. She clocked a time of 4:24.28 to hold off teammate Kelsey Frantz (4:24.71), while Kentucky's Ellie Grimes finished third in 4:27.01. Meanwhile, Florida's Justin Kaisrlik used a dominant final length to secure victory in the boys' 400 free, over teammate Rocca. Kaisrlik clocked 4:04.57, while Rocca finished at 4:05.30, after holding the lead at 350 meters. North Carolina's Ben Miller rounded out the podium in 4:07.45.

The girls from Georgia took the 200 medley relay in 2:01.34, with Tang, Evans, Lydia Jones, and Rachel Astles, while Gold Coast's squad of Andres Reyes-Capo, Smiddy, Silva, and Spas took the boys' 200 medley relay in a time of 1:48.32.

With one day of competition left to go, the Florida girls held a strong lead in the team race, with 432 points, while Georgia (350) and Kentucky (284.5) rounded out the top three. On the boys' side, Georgia maintained a narrow lead ahead of Florida, 360 points to 357.5 points, while North Carolina sat in a distant third, with 265 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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