Friday saw the Gulliver Prep girls and the American Heritage boys take home state titles in Florida High School’s Class 2A.
Gulliver Prep was led by Kelly Fertel, who won the 200 IM. Meanwhile Sherridon Dressel, Tori Bindi and Sophie Cattermole each won two events apiece.
The American Heritage boys won all three relays to claim the title, led by big splits from Julien Pinon. Steffen Mount of Washington doubled up in wins with the 200 free and 100 fly.
Girls Meet
Gulliver Prep rolled away with the team title by 55 points despite only winning two events. One of them was the 400 free relay, though, which brought in big relay points and put the win on ice to close down the meet.
That relay featured three juniors and a freshman: Niki Urquidi, Namilla Sanchez and Kelly Fertel were the veterans, while ninth-grader Alicia Mancilla swam third. Fertel was a clutch anchor for the team, going 52.31, and Urquidi led off in 52.87 as the team went 3:32.58.
Fertel also won the 200 IM for Gulliver Prep early on. Her 2:03.54 easily outpaced the field, and she did most of her damage on her field-best 28.8 freestyle split.
Sun Coast won the other two relays with the combination of Fabiana Ingram, Francesca Vandersluis, Ashley Boggs and Jenna Pisani. The four swam in that order to win the 200 medley in 1:46.25, with Pisani anchoring in 23.48. They re-ordered for the 200 free relay, with Ingram still leading off (and going 23.85) followed by Boggs, Pisani and Vandersluis. Pisani was once again quick, going 23.39 on her leg.
Sun Coast was 1:46.25 on the medley and 1:36.21 on the free relay.
Three girls doubled up on individual wins at the meet. First to complete her double was Gulf Breeze junior Tori Bindi, who swept the sprints. Bindi went 23.49 to win the 50 free, just beating out Sun Coast’s Ingram. She then came back to go 50.89 in the 100 and beat out Sun Coast’s Pisani.
Lemon Bay senior Sophie Cattermole also won twice. She took the 200 free (1:47.39) and then the 500 free (4:48.22) by solid margins.
Also winning twice was Clay High School’s Sherridon Dressel, younger sister of current Florida Gator Caeleb. She blew away the field in the 100 fly and back with two of the most impressive times on the night: 54.56 in the fly and 54.63 in the back.
Merritt Island’s Dani Keymont won the final individual event, the 100 breaststroke. Keymont was 1:02.18 to run away with the title.
Top 5 Teams
- Gulliver Prep – 240
- Suncoast – 185
- Washington – 172
- Holy Names – 155
- Estero – 133
Boys Meet
American Heritage won no individual events but swept the relays to earn the overall state title over Jesuit.
Senior Taylor Eaddy swam on all three winning relays. He anchored the medley (21.31) and led off the 200 (22.23) and 400 (48.45) free relays for Heritage.
Joining him on the medley were Nicolas Medina, Jonathan Farah and Fernando Bohorquez as Heritage went 1:36.90. Bohorquez was probably the key leg on that one, splitting 23.27 on fly.
The 200 free relay saw Eaddy combine with Chris Garcia, Bohorquez and Julien Pinon to go 1:27.21. Pinon, a junior, had the fastest split at 21.30.
In the 400 free relay, it was Eaddy, Garcia, Medina and Pinon who took the crown in 3:09.17. Pinon was 45.75 on the anchor leg.
Washington High School had a good day, with Steffen Mount winning twice. Mount took the 200 free in 1:37.65, then came back to win the 100 fly in 49.16.
Second in the fly was St. Brendan junior Zuhayr Pigot, who was coming off a win in the 50 free. Pigot went 20.42 to eke out the win by just .03 over Ridgewood’s Emir Muratovic. Muratovic, meanwhile, went on to win the 100 free in 45.04, just beating Heritage’s Pinon.
Clay High School got one of the meet’s better swims from Dakota Mahaffey, the state 100 back champ. Mahaffey was 48.82 to take the win there by nearly a full second.
Jesuit took second as a team, led by senior Austin Sellers and his 100 breast championship. Sellers was 55.59 for the win, two full seconds up on the runner-up.
Other winners included Matt Holmes of Rockledge in the 200 IM (1:51.28) and Shawn Lemarie of Naples in the 500 free (4:31.92).
Top 5 Teams
- American Heritage – 265
- Jesuit – 184
- Clay – 146
- Doral – 143
- Gulliver Prep – 123