|
CAT SWIMMERS EXCEL AT HIGH SCHOOL
STATE MEET
On Friday the Clearwater Aquatic Team had
sixteen swimmers representing their high school at the 2009 FHSAA
3A Swimming and Diving Championships. The competition was
held at the Central YMCA Aquatic Center in
Orlando.
Throughout the meet, the
CAT swimmers easily had the highest percentage of best times in the
Tampa area when comparing our results to the other club teams in
the area. Those that were not best times just barely missed
it. This is outstanding to see from our swimmers because last
year they were able to wear the “fast” suits.
Their success of course comes from working hard day in and day out
while focusing on their technique so they can continue to improve
no matter what suit they are wearing. Without this focus
their results wouldn’t be possible!
200 Medley Relay
Taylor Katz (East Lake)
swam the Fly leg (27.90) of the relay in prelims to help her team
finish 10th. For Countryside, Mate Fabian and
Istvan Meszaros swam the Bk (24.05) and Br (27.54), their fastest
splits of the season, and helped their team finish 2nd
overall. Ryan McRae, David Morgan, and Zach Perrotti lead
Palm Harbor to a 6th place finish by splitting 24.79 in
the Bk, 27.96 in the Br, and 24.13 in the Fly. Additionally,
all three of them swam their best splits of the
year.
200 Free
Taylor Katz (East Lake)
won her first state title when she came from behind on the last 50
to finish with a 1:48.79 in the 200Fr. Taylor’s time
was her best time by almost a full second and a new CAT team record
as well. Also in the 200Fr, Wes Sterns (Palm Harbor) finished
just out of first place when he placed 2nd with a
1:39.30. That time was only a tenth of second off his best
time. Neil O’Donoghue (Clearwater) finished in
11th place with a 1:45.36. Neil’s time was
less than a second off his personal best.
200
IM
David Morgan (Palm Harbor)
placed 8th in the 200IM when he went a 1:57.07. In
prelims though, he went a 1:56.44 which was his best by about a
full second. His previous best was from the week before at
the Regional Meet when he went 1:57.26. Istvan Meszaros
(Countryside) finished in 12th place with a
1:57.58. That time was over two seconds faster than his
personal best.
50
Free
Ashly Isaacson (Largo) took
6th place in the 50Fr when she stopped the clock with a
23.82. Her time was only three hundredths of a second off her
best time and her second time going under 24
seconds.
100
Fly
Mate Fabain (Countryside)
slashed over a second off his best time when he finished
3rd in the 100Fly with a 51.29. Zach Perrotti
(Palm Harbor) took 13th when he swam a 52.84. That
time was his second best ever and his best time came the week
before at Regionals (52.51).
100
Free
Ashly Isaacson (Largo)
finished in 5th place in the 100Fr when she finished
with a 51.89. That took a tenth off her best time and was
only her second time under 52 seconds. Additional, that was a
new CAT record for Ashly. Ryan McRae (Palm Harbor) placed
8th in the 100Fr when he swam a 48.15. In prelims
though he went a 47.58 which was his lifetime
best.
500
Free
Taylor Katz (East Lake)
took 2nd place in the 500Fr when she stopped the clock
with a 4:52.02. That time was less than a second off her
best, which was done at Regionals (4:51.17) a week ago. Megan
Rossi (Clearwater) finished in 7th place with a
5:01.41. In the morning she went a 5:00.41 which was just a
few seconds off her best. Winning the “B” final
was Carol Myers (Palm Harbor) with a time of 4:58.86. That
was her best time of the season by five seconds and just a little
bit off her lifetime best. Finally, Wes Stearns (Palm Harbor)
took his second 2nd place of the meet when he went a
4:25.92. That time was his best time a full three seconds and
was the third new team record of the meet.
200 Free
Relay
Swimming the anchor leg
for East Lake on the 200Fr Relay was Taylor Katz. Her team
finished in 16th place in finals and her best split of
the day on the relay was a 25.07 in prelims. Also, the Palm
Harbor relay finished in 10th place. That relay
included David Morgan (22.81), Zach Perrotti (23.04), and Wes
Stearns (21.88). David’s and Wes’ splits were
their best of the season and Zach’s was only two tenths off
his best.
100 Back
Mate Fabian (Countryside)
took CAT’s second state title with a victory in the
100Bk. His time (50.87) was his best time by a second.
Ryan McRae (Palm Harbor) finished in 6th place with a
53.61. His time was only two tenths off his best time which
was from the district meet two weeks ago. Zach Perrotti (Palm
Harbor) in prelims went a 55.87 to finish 20th
approximately a second from his best.
100 Breast
Istvan Meszaros
(Countryside) took 3rd in the 100Br when he finished
with a 59.62. That was Istvan’s first time under a
minute and was almost two seconds faster than his previous
best. Neil O’Donoghue (Clearwater) stopped the clock at
1:02.83, his lifetime best, and finished in 20th place
overall.
400 Free
Relay
On the Palm Harbor
relay, leading off was Abby King in a 55.39 and anchoring was Carol
Myers with a 53.70 to help their team finish in 10th
place. That was Abby’s best time by two seconds and
Carol’s fast split of the season by a second. For
Clearwater, Kristina Alexiou (55.54), Kathleen Rossi (57.24),
Ashley Rossi (56.73), and Megan Rossi (55.41) took 14th
place. For all of them, their split was less than half a
second from their best split this season. Angelica Compton
(Countryside) helped her team finish in 16th place with
a 58.28 while going second on her relay. That morning she
split a 57.94 to help place her team 15th in
prelims.
For the men’s side,
Mate Fabian and Istvan Meszaros lead the Countryside team to a
3rd place finish when they went a 48.22 and 48.88.
For Mate, that was his best time and it was Istvan’s best
split as well. Palm Harbor won the “B” final with
the help of Ryan McRae (49.22), David Morgan (50.26), and Wes
Stearns (46.90). For Ryan, that was a little off his best
from earlier in the meet and David was slightly off his best split
from the district meet. Wes on the other hand smashed his
previous best split of 48.19.
Overall, the CAT
swimmers had an excellent performance at the 2009 3A FHSAA Swimming
and Diving Championships. All of them should be proud of how
they performed and should be looking forward to swimming even
faster come the end of the short course season in March and
especially the long course season at the end of the summer.
Congratulations to everyone and thank you for representing CAT so
well the past few months with your high school
teams!
|
