Lake Placid Dominant At District Swimming Finals

WINTER HAVEN - Celebrations of joy and an almost collective sigh of relief washed over the crowd, as the sun set on the Class 1A-District 5 swimming meet, with many Dragons feeling the thrill of victory.

Lake Placid crowned five district champions in the finals at the Rowdy Gaines Pool on Tuesday, as the men's team earned the overall title with 372 points, out scoring the Hardee Wildcats by 16 points, while the girls earned second (381) behind Lakeland Christian (436).

"This team has been exceeding expectations all year long," LP head coach Cindy Rivers said. "This is a testament to the hard work that this team really has put in, not only during the season, but in the summer."

The Avon Park Red Devils girls grabbed fifth-place, while the boys earned a sixth place finish, with Drew Sedlock helping to give his team a pair of third-place finishes. Sedlock took the bronze in the 500-yard freestyle (6:45.27), just behind Lake Placid's Eduardo Quevedo (6:38.59) and was a member of the Red Devil 200-yard freestyle relay team (1:47.17), along with Nolan Jahna, William Odham and Miguel Ortiz.

With spots in the upcoming Region 2 finals already set after the preliminary heat, the finals were filled with swimmers competing for district titles and sometimes just old-fashioned pride.
"I wanted so bad to make a good showing here [at districts]," LP senior Chelsea McGuire said.

McGuire snagged second place in the 200-yard individual medley (2:40.00), while Avon Park's Megan Richardson finished fourth (2:51.34) and Lake Placid's Marbelly Creel came in fifth (2:53.21). McGuire was also a member of the 200-yard medley (2:11.19) and freestyle relay (1:51.57) teams that earned a pair of second-place finishes.

Dreams of gold was an inevitability when Lake Placid's elite swimmers took the pool.
The Green Dragons took top honors in the 200-yard freestyle event, with Zach Lavoy, Andrew Morrison, Kevin Smit and Robert Greene, winning by almost three seconds (1:42.84) over Ridge Community.

Senior Michael Wilkes rebounded from a sub-par performance in the preliminaries to win both the 50-yard (22.60) and 100-yard freestyle (50.17) events, beating out Hardee's Tyler Robertson, who bested Wilkes in both events earlier in the day.

Lake Placid's Danielle Rivers (27.24) defeated Hardee's Kaitlin Justice (28.29) in the 50-yard freestyle, but couldn't repeat the feat in the 100-yard freestyle, placing second (1:01.61) to All Saints Academy's Andrea Henricks (59.86).

A youthful Avon Park team didn't swim like a team lacking in competition experience. The Red Devils have been through their share of ups and downs, with numerous coaching changes in its seven-plus year history.

"It takes its toll on the kids," AP dive coach Shane Wiries said. "When you change a coach, you also bring in a new philosophy and the kids have to adapt to that. It is good that we have some stability with Coach [Jessica] Thayer and now with Quinlan [Wolfe]."

Wolfe, who was a state champion swimmer for the Sebring Blue Streaks, joined the Red Devil swim team over the summer, and his experience and tutelage has produced impressive results, with Avon Park qualifying 12 individual swimmers to regionals.

"There was so much work we had to do with this young group of swimmers," Wolfe said. "They all had a great attitude and all I did was fine tune their technique, especially on turns, which instantly shed seconds off their times."

Ortiz, who will represent in the 50-yard freestyle and possibly the 200-yard relay team, has seen improvement in his own performance thanks to Wolfe.

"He didn't do a lot with how I was swimming," Ortiz said. "He would notice the positioning of my body when I would do my turn. The little things that he would notice has made an huge impact."

The meet ended on a high note for the swimmers in green.
The Lake Placid boys finished strong for the Green Dragons, earning gold medal finishes in both the 200-yard (1:42.84) and 400-yard freestyle (3:44.89) events that put an exclamation mark on a fine day in the pool.

Next up for the swimmers moving on are the regionals, which will be held at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando on Oct. 27 beginning at 9 a.m.