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Land O' Lakes Sweeps Zephyrhills

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: September 3, 2008

Updated: 09/03/2008 11:38 pm

ZEPHYRHILLS – In summer football practice, there comes a time when you need to face someone other than your own teammates. The same is true for other sports – like swimming.

There are only so many laps you can swim before you need someone in a different suit next to you.

The high school swimming season began Wednesday in Pasco County, including at Zephyrhills' Hercules Aquatic Center where Land O' Lakes traveled to face the Bulldogs.

Led by freshman Alex Pierovich, the Gators' girls downed Zephyrhills 109-85 while the Land O' Lakes boys won 10 of the 11 swimming events to down the Bulldogs 124-59.
Pierovich won four events (200 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay) in her first high school meet.

"We're really pleased with Alex Pierovich," Gators coach Robin Hilgenberg said. "She's a freshman and she's not new to the swimming world but she is new to high school swimming and we're real excited to have her get away from the club atmosphere and experience high school swimming."

Karley Nelson won three events for Land O' Lakes (100 backstroke, 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle) while Alexi Weeks led the Bulldogs with three wins (50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 200 freestyle relay).

"It was hard. We had a lot of rookies doing their thing for the first time – its a learning curve," Zephyrhills coach James Washington said. "We're very proud of some of our athletes – they did a lot better than we expected. Land O' Lakes has been our competition for a long time and we know that's where the bar is so that's where we set our bar. We'll see them again at conference and hope we can catch up."

Eric Singer (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 400 freestyle relay) and Derrick Mysels (200 freestyle, 100 backstroke) led the Gators' boys.

Land O' Lakes coach Barbara Hayes wasn't concerned about how her Gators would swim Wednesday night.

"We always enjoy our first meet," Hayes said. "We usually swim Zephyrhills – they're very relaxed and laid back like we are. In the first meet, we're just glad the kids get to all their events. We have a lot of new swimmers and I think they did really well. Through the duel-meet season, we're just building toward the end of the year. It's just meet-by-meet to train the kids what to expect when they get to conference and district."

Hilgenberg echoed Hayes' comments about the youth of the Gators' team.

"They did about what we expected. Some of them got their best times, some of them didn't," Hilgenberg said. "But we really don't care whether the got their best times tonight because we know we have the whole season to get the kinks out and show everyone how much faster we can swim. Some of the new swimmers surprised me that they could do their events and finish quite well. We have a lot of new girls on the team and some of them were really scared – they felt like they wouldn't be able to finish their event and they did. Now they're happy about it and they know what we need to do in practice."

GIRLS SWIMMING
LAND O' LAKES 109, ZEPHYRHILLS 85
200 medley relay – L (Nelson, Pierovich, Ritchie, McCullough) 2:10.03; 200 freestyle – Oliver (L) 2:28.19; 200 IM – Pierovich (L) 2:18.12; 50 freestyle – Weeks (Z) 29.26; Diving – Schepper (Z) 158.70; 100 butterfly – Pierovich (L) 1:03.92; 100 freestyle – Borgen (Z) 58.89; 500 freestyle – McCullough (L) 6:41.17; 200 freestyle relay – Z (Weeks, Anderton, Schepper, Gorgen) 2:02.94; 100 backstroke – Nelson (L) 1:12.88; 100 breaststroke – Weeks (Z) 1:16.28; 400 freestyle relay – L (McCullough, McCarthy, Nelson, Pierovich) 4:22.11. Records – L 1-0, Z 0-1.

BOYS SWIMMING
LAND O' LAKES 124, ZEPHYRHILLS 59
200 medley relay – Z (Stewart, First, Moss, Betancourt) 2:08.85; 200 freestyle – Mysels (L) 1:59.95; 200 IM – Hilgenberg (L) 2:22.19; 50 freestyle – Singer (L) 24.33; Diving – Musso (Z) 168.05; 100 butterfly – Muley (L) 1:04.18; 100 freestyle – Singer (L) 52.64; 500 freestyle – Lawson (L) 5:37.70; 200 freestyle relay – L (Johannessen, Clemson, Sequeira, Clark) 1:56.40; 100 backstroke – Mysels (L) 1:06.29; 100 breaststroke – Possioura (L) 1:13.94; 400 freestyle relay – L (Singer, Lawson, Clark, D. Gray) 3:53.91. Records – L 1-0, Z 0-1.

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