Dragon domination

After losing a number of talented swimmers from last year's squad, the Lake Placid swim program looked to be in a rebuilding season.

Not anymore.

Lake Placid, which showed steady improvement over the course of the season, finished first in both the boys and girls competitions at the Class 1A-District 5 meet at the Rowdy Gaines Pool on Wednesday.

Lake Placid won the 10-team boys meet for the fourth consecutive year with 498 points, All Saints (Winter Haven) placed second with 362, Lakeland Christian finished third at 309 and Avon Park came in sixth with 159.

The Green Dragons won the girls meet with 451 points, Lakeland Christian came in second with 384 and Avon Park placed ninth with 67.

Lake Placid advances to next Saturday's regional meet at Lake Highland Prep in Orlando.

"I'm very proud of all of our kids," said Lake Placid swim coach Thomas Creel. "We only have 15 experienced swimmers and the rest of them are brand new.

"The kids worked very hard over the course of the season and it's remarkable what they were able to accomplish."

Leading the way for the Green Dragon boys were juniors Kevin Smit and Dylan Weber-Callahan and senior Bobby Greene.

Smit finished third in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:21.97, placed second in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.51 and teamed up with Matthew Padovano, Jerquaid Quinn and Greene to win the 200 medley relay in 1:52.87.

Smith combined with Greene, Callahan and David Samperi to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:38.22.

Padovano placed third in the 100 backstroke in 1:07.37 and fourth in the 500 freestyle in 6:01.34, while Callahan won the 200 freestyle in 2:09.83 and placed second in the 50 free in 23.94.

Greene came in third in the 50 free in 24.05 and Quinn finished third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.23.

Lake Placid junior Edwin Velasquez qualified for regionals in diving with a second-place finish with 364.35 points, while Avon Park senior James Chittum finished third to advance with 311.00.

Avon Park sophomore Mitchell Guerndt placed third in the 200 freestyle in 2:16.12 and Will Odham came in fourth in the 50 free in 24.79 and second in the 100 free in 54.55.

Avon Park's Angel Rosado, Erik Parker, Lee Tanner and Kyle Jahna finished fifth in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:58.38.

In the girls competition, Lake Placid senior Tammi Beach led the way with a first in the 50 free in 27.16 and a first in the 100 backstroke in 1:09.68.

Beach combined with Rachel Cope, Shannon Viox and Shannon Cummings to finish third in the 400 freestyle relay in 4:16.36 and the same quartet teamed up to finish third in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:54.70.

Cope placed second in 200 individual medley with a 2:36.47 and came in fourth in the 100 breastroke in 1:19.01.

Cummings placed second in the 100 butterfly in 1:11.16 and the versatile sophomore won the diving competition with 283.50 points to advance to next week's regional meet.

Viox placed second in the 100 backstroke in 1:15.68 and finished sixth in the 200 individual medley in 2:53.57.

Avon Park junior Kiri Crommett finished fifth in the 200 freestyle in 2:27.82 and Red Devil junior Raeleigh Miller placed sixth in the 100 freestyle in 1:11.27.

Avon Park's Tricia Bates, Miller, Rachel Macklin and Crommett came in fifth in the 400 freestyle relay in 5:18.51.

Lake Placid now has to gear up for the very competitive regional, which will have some of the top swimmers in the state.

"We had a good district meet and now we're focused on doing our best at regionals," said Coach Creel. "It's a tough regional, but I think we can break some school records and we're looking forward to competing."