By Jaidyn Lott, Staff Reporter
It’s sadly the end of the DeLand High school swim season. Districts, Regionals and States are finished. The girls team placed 5th overall, the boys placed 4th overall. The girls’ team did not place in Regionals, the boys placed 7th. There were two people who advanced to States.
To prepare their swimmers for the meets, Coach Katie and Coach Jendrzejewski decided to put them taper. This just means that the Coaches don’t give as challenging of workouts and have a more laid-back practice. Even throwing in a game of Sharks and Minnows here and there.
Districts were held at the Port Orange YMCA. This pool was used for many meets this year so the coaches were happy that the team would be familiar with the pool.
In the district meets, you go up against the swimmers in your district. For DeLand that would be Spruce Creek, FPC, Father Lopez, Lake Brantly, and University. DeLand swim is in district 1A, the fastest district, which makes the end of the season more challenging.
To advance to Regionals, the swimmer or relays must be the top 24 in the district meet. This meet ends the season for most DeLand swimmers. Regionals was held at Lake Brantly High school, another facility DeLand is familiar with. Only one swimmer claimed a set spot at States, sophomore, Piper Jemison. One other swimmer, junior, Mossimo Brunacci, went as the first alternate for the 100 Breaststroke. The “first alternate” means that he placed 25th, this means if someone above him, such as the swimmer in 24th or 23rd place, were to drop out of the event, he would have the opportunity to swim.
States was at the Ocala F.A.S.T. pool (Florida Aquatic Swimming and Training). After this meet, there is no further advancement, but you can win in your event, and there are the usual 1st, 2nd, 3rd place in each event.
According to senior Carlos Mize, the boy’s captain, he felt as though “… the swim season goes by too fast. I feel like I could’ve done so much more with my season but it’s hard to do that with such little time per season.”
Gavin Brown, senior, says “I wish I could relive it one more time.”
Bella Gagnier, senior, says, “Senior year was great, there were a lot of new people, but everyone was so friendly and amazing at the sport, it was a great experience and a great way to end swim season.”
Overall, the boys’ team was undefeated in the dual meets, the girls had one loss, against Seabreeze High School. The coaches want to congratulate every swimmer and thank all the teams’ supporters.
Read more from The Growler here.
