Nutter leads area swimmers at state Class 1A meet

A handful of area swimmers brought home medals from the Class 1A state swim meet on Friday at Sailfish Splashpark Aquatic Center.

Cardinal Mooney’s Jillian Santiago and Matt Nutter, Bradenton Christian’s Anna Freed and Out-of-Door Academy’s Martin Baffico reached individual finals.

Nutter, a senior, posted the best finish. He was third (45.80) in the boys 100 freestyle after turning in the third-fastest time in the preliminaries. He later finished sixth in the boys 200 freestyle (1:40.33) after qualifying sixth (1:41.98) in the preliminaries.

Freed finished fifth in the 100 backstroke (55.90) after posting a 55.37 in the preliminaries. In the girls 200 IM, she won the consolation final in 2:03.59, which put her ninth overall. She just missed the final by finishing ninth in 2:04.59 in the preliminaries.

Baffico’s best finish was also fifth, coming in the 100 butterfly (50.33). The junior posted the sixth-fastest qualifying time in the preliminaries (50.28) in the event. In the 100 backstroke, he finished ninth (52.80), winning the consolation final.

Santiago, a junior, finished seventh in the girls 200 freestyle (1:50.38) after turning in the sixth-fastest time (1:51.23) in the preliminaries. She also finished 12th in the girls 100 freestyle (52.53) after posting the 11th-best time in the preliminaries (52.33).

In the boys 500 freestyle, Saint Stephen’s Marshall Webster finished 10th (4:38.22) after posting a 4:40.70 in the preliminaries and Out-of-Door’s Sarsen Whatmore finished 13th in 4:40.50. Webster finished 18th in the 200 freestyle (1:46.04).

Out-of-Door’s boys 200 medley relay team finished 12th in a time of 1:42.20. The Thunder quartert of Whatmore, Zach Szmania, Martin Baffico, Laszlo Tengerdy turned in a time of 1:41.78 in the preliminaries. Whatmore finished 20th (1:46.30) in the boys 200 free and did not advance out of the preliminaries.

In the boys 200 IM, Bradenton Christian’s Connor Kesten just missed qualifying for the consolation final, finishing 17th in the preliminaries in 2:00.97. Zach Szmania also failed to advance, finishing 23rd in 2:04.13. He was 24th in the boys 100 breaststroke preliminaries. Kersten finished 24th in the 100 backstroke.

This story was originally published November 12, 2016 at 12:19 AM with the headline "Nutter leads area swimmers at state Class 1A meet."