Tight-Knit Relay Team Leads Sebring To State

Megan Wolfe's first time at state, during her freshman year, was a self-described "blur."

Last season, when the then-sophomore stunned the crowd and herself with a third-place tie out of lane eight in the 50-yard freestyle finals, the situation wasn't much different.

This time around, however, Wolfe will have a few more friends around to share memories of the state meet: The junior qualified as an individual and as the anchor-leg of Sebring's tight-knit 200-yard freestyle team on Saturday at the Class 2A-Region 3 swimming meet and will lead a strong contingent of Blue Streak swimmers into Friday's 2A state championships.

"I've never been on a relay team at state, so it's pretty exciting," said Wolfe, who along with senior Leeza Freeland, junior Katie Bullard and senior Katie Havery took second in the regional final and qualified 14th for next week's state meet at the Central Florida YMCA Aquatic Center in Orlando. "We all want to this for each other."

That sentiment rings especially true for Havery, who will make her first appearance at the state meet when she swims the final laps of her prep career.

She said the 200-free relay has been her focus all season, and she couldn't be more excited to make the trip to state, no matter how she gets there.

"I don't care how I make it, I just want to go really bad," Havery said. "We really concentrated and went out like it was our last race ever, because it could've been."

Freeland, the relay's lead leg, said she felt good about the team's chances after her quick start.

"That adrenaline was really pumping, and I was right around my best time," Freeland said, noting she'd focused more on the relay than she did the 100 butterfly, an event in which she failed to qualify for state. "I don't know if last year was my peak your for the butterfly, but relays are more fun, anyway."
Wolfe, Havery and Freeland, who've been swimming together since grade school, said their familiarity with each other helps them make the transition from being loose to focused as the race nears. Bullard, who joined the trio three years ago and is known as the team's "newbie," said she can't think of a better group to make the trip with.

"It's great -- they've really been awesome," she said. "We all pump each other up."

On the boys side, Bryan Kirsch also punched his ticket to state with a 1:05.66 in the finals of the 100-backstroke, good enough for fourth in the region and the 23rd seed in state.

The junior said he used a quick start to stay in contention, but after that, it was simply a matter of hanging on.

"I tried to get ahead in the first 50, because that's the only part I can really keep up with everyone," Kirsch said. "I just tried to keep my lead as long as possible. I knew it was going to be close."

Sebring's Shaanan Spiegel also pulled out an invitation to the state meet with his first career sub-one-minute time in the 100-backstroke. The senior, whose Friday performance at the diving portion of the meet left him a disappointing 11th out of 12 divers, said the weather took a bit of spring out of everyone's dives.

"It was cold, and that makes you a little more tense," Spiegel said. "It's harder to focus and relax when you're sitting there shivering."

Sebring coach Pat Caton said she was happy with her team's performance, and that sending four swimmers to state was the goal after sending two last season.

"We look to double it every year," she said, noting those six swimmers moving on to next week's meet will practice this week in "tapering mode," which includes the usual 2,500 yards per day and extra focus on turns and relay starts. "We had some records broken and some good times, and we'll be ready to go for next week."