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SWIMMING: Land O' Lakes sweeps SAC

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: October 25, 2009

TAMPA – Heading into Saturday's Sunshine Athletic Conference swimming meet at the New Tampa YMCA, Land O' Lakes coach Barb Hayes knew it would be a battle in the boys competition between her Gators and Mitchell.

And when the Land O' Lakes 200 freestyle relay was disqualified, it was thought that just might be enough to dethrone the defending champions. But it wasn't.

Despite losing valuable points in that relay, Land O' Lakes defended its boys title, outscoring Mitchell 132-116.

"I told the kids (Friday) that mistakes could cost us (the meet)," Hayes said. "We've had a long history of not having to worry about the competition here. We welcome competition. We want to see the future of swimming strong in Pasco County so we're thrilled people are creeping up on us.

"That mistake could have cost us the meet," Hayes continued. "We will learn from that. I would rather have that happen here than in the state series."

Land O' Lakes only won three events – Arthur Mapugay (200 individual medley), Patrick Gray (100 backstroke) and the 400 freestyle relay (Dom Dolente, Robert Jones, Andrew Busot and Mapugay) – but placed second or third in every event but three.

The meet was moved out of the county because the conference, with the addition of Anclote, now has 12 teams and have outgrown most of the facilities in Pasco County. Also, only three facilities in the county – New Port Richey Recreation and Aquatic Center, Gills YMCA in Trinity and Saint Leo University – have pools deep enough to have starting blocks. And none of those facilities have eight lanes, which is needed for a meet this size.

"We continue to push our conference meet rather than go straight to state series because we don't have any opportunity," Hayes said. "What we need in Pasco County is pool space. We need more opportunities for kids to go off the blocks and to experience things like this.

Land O' Lakes girls, behind six first-place finishes, easily outdistanced Sunlake, 152-105, to win the girls team title and give Land O' Lakes its first sweep since 2006.

The Gators got first place finishes from Alex Pierovich (200 individual medley, 100 breaststroke, 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay), Karley Nelson (50 freestyle, 200 medley relay) Andrea Mapugay (200 medley relay), Savanna Oliver (200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay), Meredith Diamond (diving), Kelsey McCullough (200 freestyle relay) and Haley Long (200 freestyle relay).

Pierovich broke the only girls conference record with her 1:08.97 performance in the 100 breaststroke, breaking an 8-year-old mark.

"We totally believe in team," Hayes said after the meet. "It's incredible to win as a team again."

While the girls team title was never in question, there were some anxious moments awaiting the boys results.

"When we didn't think the boys won, it kind of took some of the excitement away," said Land O' Lakes girls coach Robin Hilgenberg. "So when they announced the boys had won, it brought the excitement back. In my mind, the conference meet is what you work for. It's all about team. We told our kids you had to wear the team suit and cap for this meet. The conference meet is about winning as a team."

While Land O' Lakes took the team title, there were plenty of outstanding individual performances.

Mitchell's Devin McCaffrey, only a freshman, was part of four conference records as he won the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke and was a member of the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay. The other boys conference record was set by Gulf's Hunter Swartsel in the 50 freestyle.

Boys double winners were McCaffrey, Swartsel (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle) and Joe Geschke of Ridgewood (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle). Girls double winners were Pierovich, Letti Clark of Zephyrhills (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle) and Lindsay Gorgen of Zephyrhills (100 freestyle, 100 backstroke).

Here are the top finishers. Complete results can be found at Swimresultsbytrg.com

GIRLS
Team Scores
1. Land O' Lakes (LOL) 152, 2. Sunlake (SUNL) 105, 3. Mitchell (MITC) 70, 4. Zephyrhills (ZEPH) 68, 5. Hudson (HUDS) 55, 6. Wiregrass Ranch (WIRE) 45, 7. Gulf (GULF) 32, 8. River Ridge (RVRG) 13, 9. Wesley Chapel (WESC) 11, 10. Pasco (PASC) 4, 11. Ridgewood and Anclote 0.

200 Medley Relay – 1. LOL (Nelson, Pierovich, Mapugay, Oliver) 2:02.08; 2. SUNL (Sylvester, O'Shaughnessy, Harder, Huynh) 2:04.97; 3. MITC (Hammer, Green, Siddens, Gluck) 2:06.40.
200 Freestyle – 1. Clark (ZEPH) 2:00.42; 2. Sylvester (SUNL) 2:09.54; 3. McCullough (LOL) 2:12.72.
200 Individual Medley – 1. Pierovich (LOL) 2:12.83; 2. Siddens (MITC) 2:19.93; 3. Magolan (GULF) 2:31.68.
50 Freestyle – 1. Nelson (LOL) 26.42; 2 Huynh (SUNL) 26.49; 3 Perry (HUDS) 27.29.
Diving – 1. Diamond (LOL) 380.80; 2. Tillman (SUNL) 357.80; 3. Maser (MITC) 335.25.
100 Butterfly – 1. Siddens (MITC) 1:00.43; 2. Harder (SUNL) 1:06.22; 3. Powell (WIRE) 1:10.70.
100 Freestyle – 1. Gorgen (ZEPH) 57.02; 2. Huynh (SUNL) 57.56; 3. Oliver (LOL) 1:01.56.
500 Freestyle – 1. Clark (ZEPH) 5:24.18; 2. Harder (SUNL) 5:45.07; 3. Sopapong (WESC) 5:59.77.
200 Freestyle Relay – 1. LOL (McCullough, Oliver, Long, Pierovich) 1:49.69; 2 ZEPH (Gorgen, Anderton,
Durrett, Clark) 1:50.23; 3 MITC (Gluck, Green, Siddens, Hammer) 1:53.32.
100 Backstroke – 1. Gorgen (ZEPH) 1:03.66; 2. Sylvester (SUNL) 1:04.20; 3. Nelson (LOL) 1:09.86.
100 Breaststroke – 1. Pierovich (LOL) 1:08.97-SAC record; 2. Oliver (LOL) 1:19.34; 3. Green (MITC) 1:19.48.
400 Freestyle Relay – 1. SUNL (Mattox, Sylvester, Harder, Huynh) 3:58.03; 2. LOL (McCullough, Mapugay, Long, Nelson) 4:04.08; 3. GULF (Jacobs, Magolan, Jauch, Magolan) 4:26.72.

BOYS
Team Scores
1. Land O' Lakes (LOL) 132, 2. Mitchell (MITC) 116, 3. Gulf (GULF) 77, 4. Zephyrhills (ZEPH) 54, 5. Hudson (HUDS) 48, 6. Wiregrass Ranch (WIRE) and Sunlake (SUNL) 43, 8. Ridgewood (RDGW) 18, 9. Pasco (PASC) 13, 10. Wesley Chapel (WESC) 6, 11. River Ridge (RVRG) 5, 12. Anclote 0.

200 Medley Relay – 1. MITC (Wegener, Ondrejka, McCaffrey, Hunt) 1:46.75-SAC record; 2. LOL (Gray, Mapugay, Muley, Jones) 1:49.76; 3. ZEPH (Moss, Betancourt-Reyes, Novak, Yingling) 1:55.77.
200 Freestyle – 1. Geschke (RDGW) 1:51.62; 2. Tomczyk (MITC) 2:01.88; 3. Muley (LOL) 2:02.28.
200 Individual Medley – 1. Mapugay (LOL) 2:15.50; 2. Gray (LOL) 2:17.14; 3. Ondrejka (MITC) 2:17.73.
50 Freestyle – 1. H. Swartsel (GULF) 22.30-SAC record; 2. Hunt (MITC) 22.65; 3. Liggieri (HUDS) 23.33.
Diving – 1. Betancourt-Reyes (ZEPH) 315.00; 2. Wachsman (SUNL) 309.05; 3. Hayman (GULF) 274.05.
100 Butterfly – 1. McCaffrey (MITC) 53.55-SAC record; 2. Muley (LOL) 59.46; 3. Kovalenko (WIRE) 1:02.03.
100 Freestyle – 1. H. Swartsel (GULF) 49.24-SAC record; 2. Hunt (MITC) 51.69; 3. Clark (LOL) 53.20.
500 Freestyle – 1. Geschke (RDGW) 5:05.96; 2. Serota (WIRE) 5:28.64; 3. Waide (GULF) 5:31.84.
200 Freestyle Relay – 1. MITC (Hunt, Wegener, Ondrejka, McCaffrey) 1:33.51-SAC record; 2. GULF (H. Swartsel, Gleghorn, Miller, Pimentel) 1:40.23; 3. ZEPH (Moss, Novak, Co. Yingling, Ca. Yingling) 1:40.68.
100 Backstroke – 1. Gray (LOL) 1:01.04; 2. Keach (SUNL) 1:02.21; 3. Clark (LOL) 1:03.32.
100 Breaststroke – 1. McCaffrey (MITC) 1:02.43-SAC record; 2. Ondrejka (MITC) 1:06.43; 3. Mapugay (LOL) 1:07.69.
400 Freestyle Relay – 1. LOL (Dolente, Jones, Busot, Mapugay) 3:38.79; 2. GULF (H. Swartsel, Gleghorn,
Waide, Miller) 3:46.02; 3. HUDS (Struble, Jones, Strand, Liggieri) 3:47.22.

Correspontent Rick Harmon can be reached at tampabaystringer@gmail.com.

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