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Swimming: Sickles girls fourth at state

Staff photo by RICK HARMON

The Sickles 200-meter freestyle team collects it medals at the Class 2A meet in Orlando.

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By KATHERINE SMITH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 13, 2009

ORLANDO - The past two seasons, the Sickles girls swim team sat back and watched while the boys stole the limelight with state champion swimmers and last year's fifth-place team.

Thursday, the Gryphons girls one-upped the boys. Winning bronze medals in the 200 medley and 200 free relays at the Class 2A state meet, Sickles finished fourth in the team standings (140 points), the best finish in school history.

Sickles held a 14-point lead on Tallahassee Chiles, a 20-point lead on Gainesville Eastside and 25 on Jacksonville Bishop Kenny before the final event - the 400 free relay. But the Gryphons didn't have a team in that event, and Eastside (160) was able to overtake them for the title with a first place finish. Chiles was second (152) and Bishop Kenny third (147).

"I don't think they had any expectations to place at all," Sickles coach Fay Went said. "They just wanted to do well in their events."

Sickles set the tone with a third in the opening event, the 200 medley relay. The Gryphons were in jeopardy of missing a spot on the podium after the first two legs of the relay when senior Cristina DeCisneros dove in for the butterfly leg.

"This was it," DeCisneros said. "This was my last medley relay as a high school swimmer, so it was all or nothing."

Senior Katie Westbrook continued the come-from-behind third-place finish with a 24.38 split in the freestyle leg.

"We were talking all week about how much we wanted to be on the podium," said Westbrook, who was also fourth in the 500 free and fifth in the 200 free.

Katie Cook added to the team total with a fourth in the 100 free (51.93) and a fifth in the 50 free with an All-America consideration time of 24.04. She also swam legs on the bronze-medal relays.

Sickles divers also helped. Alex Valder earned her first state medal with a sixth in the 1-meter diving with a score of 385.50. Sickles senior Bre Davis was 12th (360.10).

Mitchell freshman Devin McCaffrey placed second in the 100 fly and 100 breaststroke.

The Gryphons boys weren't denied attention. Senior Trey Went III continued a Sickles tradition in the 50 free by winning a bronze with a personal best of 21.60. It's the third year in a row a Sickles swimmer has medaled in the event. Gregg Cooke won the gold in 2007 and a bronze last year.

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