GIRLS’ MEET
The Gulliver Prep girls went flying right out of the gate, dominating the 200 medley relay (1:45.55) by over three seconds and then winning the following two events. They would go on to take the rest of the relays along with a few more individual events in their huge team win at the FHSAA 2A Champs.
Niki Urquidi and Kelly Fertel, who both committed to the University of Florida in September, were instrumental to Gulliver’s success this weekend. Fertel’s 28.90 split on the medley relay was the only split faster than 30 seconds, and she would go on to win both the 200 IM (2:01.20) and the 100 breast (1:03.29).
Urquidi jumped out to a big lead early in the 200 free (52.58) and held on to finish first in 1:48.17 by almost three seconds. She returned to dominate the 500 free (4:46.97), then dove in shortly after to provide a 23.79 split on Gulliver’s winning 200 free relay.
A small selection of talents monopolized wins today– Gulf Breeze senior Tori Bindi, another UF commit, completed a remarkable achievement today. In winning both the 50 free (23.52) and 100 free (50.38), Bindi finished her double four-peat. She has won the 2A 50 and 100 free every year since she started competing for Gulf Breeze at the high school level.
The other double winner was Clay’s Sherridon Dressel, younger sister of Florida phenom Caeleb Dressel. Little sis won both the 100 fly (54.04) and the 100 back (54.90). Clay didn’t make A finals in their free relays, but a quick scroll down to the B finals on the results page showed that Dressel had blazing lead-offs– 23.24 in the 200 free relay and 50.95 in the 400 free relay.
Final scores:
- Gulliver Prep 377
- Arnold 166
- Stanton 132 (tie)
- Titusville 132 (tie)
- American Heritage 110
BOYS’ MEET
American Heritage edged out Jesuit in a very tight team race that came down to the final relay.
Jesuit kicked off the meet with an easy victory in the 200 medley relay, getting a 23.79 backstroke leg from senior Byrne Litschgi. Later on, Litschgi would rack up points off of runner-up finishes in the 200 IM and 100 back.
Medley anchor Tommy Shaffer provided a big win in the 100 free; his 46.42 topped an A final that had no American Heritage swimmers present. Jesuit also garnered a victory in the 200 free relay, as Shaffer held off furious sub-21 anchors from American Heritage’s Julien Pinon (20.57) and Gulliver Prep’s Miguel Cancel (20.88).
Pinon, an Auburn commit, claimed two events of his own to fuel American Heritage’s team race with Jesuit. He first took the 200 free (1:37.75) over Cancel (1:39.11) and Clay’s Dakota Mahaffey (1:40.01), then won the 100 fly in 48.83, the only swimmer to break 50 seconds.
Mahaffey later won the 100 backstroke in 48.73, winning by a commanding two full seconds. He also split sub-21 as an anchor in the 200 free relay (20.73).
The team race was incredibly tight after the breaststroke. Jesuit got an A final scorer in Jonah Martinez, who finished 7th, and Jesuit had made up a lot of ground for the lead of 210.5 to 210 over American Heritage.
American Heritage, however, topped the field by a large margin. With their winning time of 3:09.08 (and a 45.33 anchor from Pinon), they edged Jesuit by over five seconds and finished the meet with the state title.
Other winners:
- Fort Walton Beach’s Daniel Orcutt took the 200 IM in 1:50.68.
- Manden Smith of Gulf HS earned the win in the 50 free (21.13) by just two hundredths over Gulf Breeze’s Anthony Davis (21.15).
Final scores:
- American Heritage 250
- Jesuit 244.5
- Gulliver Prep 185
- Arnold 143
- Suncoast 108