Published: Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Balanced attack helped Mustangs clinch gold

Lakewood Ranch sends 22 swimmers to regional meet

Lakewood Ranch’s swimming teams headed into Friday’s Class 2A-District 9 meet hoping to send as many Mustangs as possible into regional competition.

But coach Maureen Reid admitted that wasn’t the team’s only hope.

“We went into it knowing we had a fairly strong chance for a good placement,” Reid said, “with the swimmers that we had.”

The Mustangs went out of it with some gold. The girls team won the district championship, the boys placed second and Lakewood Ranch totaled 763 points — tops overall in the district.

“I’m extremely happy with how the kids swam,” Reid said. “They’ve been working hard all summer and swimming really well as a team.”

The Mustangs send 17 swimmers, and five alternates, into Friday’s Class 2A-Region 3 meet at North Shore Pool in St. Petersburg. The next step is the Class 2A state championships, scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12 at the Central Florida YMCA Aquatic Center in Orlando.

Reid’s daughter, Ashley, had a strong showing at the district meet, placing first in the 200-meter individual medley (2:09.15) and the 100 breaststroke (1:09.7). She also swam a leg on the Mustangs’ victorious 200 medley relay (1:58.01), as well as the 400 freestyle relay team, which placed second (3:48.38).

Joining Ashley on the 200 team was Rebekah Baker, Raegan Sauer and Shannon McCarthy. Katherine Hochedal joined Baker, McCarthy and Reid on the 400 relay team.

Ashley Reid is seeded first in the regional meet in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke. The 200 medley relay team and 400 freestyle team are each seeded second.

On the boys side, John Silvers was the big winner, taking first in the 200 freestyle (1:49.33) and 500 freestyle (4:55.58), while swimming a leg on the Mustangs’ first-place 200 (1:34.19) and 400 freestyle (3:30.83) relay teams. James Cascone joined Silvers on both relay teams and took first in the 100 butterfly (55.63) and owns the top regional seed in the event, as well.

Also owning the top seed is the boys 200 freestyle team.

Matt Polk and Lucas Thompson rounded out the relay teams with Silvers and Cascone, and Thompson won the 50 freestyle (22.91).

Bayshore’s 200 medley relay team of Derek Ober, Matt Orzech, Devin Melcher and Jesse Milen finished sixth to earn a regional berth, as did Southeast’s team of Chris Retzel, Stephen Roberts, Edison Dohms and Paul King. Braden River’s girls 400 relay team of Cheyenne Hartley, MacKenzie Flanagan, Madison Daunt and Holly Neuhaus also advanced.

In Class 3A, Manatee’s Rachel Harrington won the 100 butterfly (59.50) in the District 6 meet and was second in the 500 freestyle (5:02.24), qualifying for the regional in both events.

Also qualifying for Manatee was Shiloh Magann (diving), Sam Dorman (100 breaststroke) and the boys 200 freestyle relay team of Dorman, Ben Carpenter, Zach Beeker and Kyle Aritt.

The Class 3A-Region 2 meet is scheduled for Saturday at the North Shore Pool, with the diving slated for Friday.

The Class 1A-Region 3 meet, featuring qualifiers from Cardinal Mooney, Out-of-Door Academy and Saint Stephen’s, will be Saturday at the Selby Aquatic Center.