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Swimmers Ready For District Meet

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today file photo

Sebring's Brian Miller is a force in the butterfly events heading into this week's Class 2A-District 7 meet in Winter Haven.

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CHRIS HOFFMAN

Highlands Today

Published: October 28, 2008

AVON PARK - The calm shimmer of the Rowdy Gaines Pool in Winter Haven will be replaced by the furious display of competition, as the Class 1A and 2A district finals begin today with a bang.

Avon Park first-year head coach Michael Scofield has high hopes for several of his athletes, many who will be competing in districts for the first time.

"We're really looking forward to the next two days of competition," Scofield said. "We may be a smaller and younger team than most in the district, but we'll be able to hold our own in each race we're entered."

Tyler King, who is seeded fourth in the 200-yard freestyle, and freshman diver Jamie Wirries are among the regional hopefuls for the Red Devils, along with John Chittum, who'll try and extend the streak of state qualifiers in diving for dive coach Shane Wirries.

"If John can keep his focus and rise to his potential, he has an excellent chance of making it to the state finals," Wirries said. "Jamie has been a surprise, but she has the dedication and drive to do better than her previous outing."

For Lake Placid, Robert Greene and Kevin Smit lead the Green Dragons on the boy's side and junior Tammie Beach and Marbelly Creel for the girls.

Beach recently broke the one-minute barrier in the 100-yard freestyle (59.69) and has her sights set on breaking the school record, while Creele dominated the 200 individual medley and the 100-yard butterfly at the recent tri-meet that featured all three local teams.

Creel also will try to advance to regionals as a member of the 200-yard medley and freestyle relay teams.

Greene won the 50-yard freestyle (24.45) with ease at the tri-meet and should be on pace to qualify for regionals in the 100-yard freestyle, while sophomore Smit is one of the tops in the 100-yard butterfly, but should be tested by Sebring's Brian Miller, who pushed the LP sophomore the whole way at the tri-meet before taking second.

Sebring's Mathew Vickers is as close to a sure thing to qualify in the 500-yard freesyle, where he took first (5:43.20) at the tri-meet and teammate Matthew Thompson has been swimming solid of late in the 200-yard freestyle, where he'll see major competition from Lake Placid's Dylan Weber-Callahan and Avon Park's Holan Jahna.

Blue Streak Megan Wolfe has her sights set on the state finals in the 100-yard breaststroke and in the 50-yard freestyle. The Sebring senior looks to improve on last year's seventh place finish in the event at the Class 2A state finals.

"I'm swimming really good and am on pace with my times to be really competitive throughout districts and regionals," Wolfe said. "I'm working every day that I'll get my times down to where I need them to be if I make it to the state finals. This year I'm healthy, which is more than I can say for last year."

Avon Park and Lake Placid will be competing in the Class 1A-District 5 diving finals being held today at 10 a.m., while Sebring will hit the pool for the Class 2A-District 7 finals today at 9 a.m.

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5827 or choffman@highlandstoday.com

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