Bayshore High’s Ryley Ober preparing for run to state swim meet

The sprinkled rain subsided, the sun was setting and loud cheering for various swimmers took place at G.T. Bray Park’s aquatic complex.

Ryley Ober and Anna Freed weren’t among the crowd’s focus at the time.

The two were gliding through the water in the cooling off portion of the pool.

They were smiling, laughing and chatting as they eased from one end of the pool to the other.

Moments earlier, the two weren’t showing the friendship they’ve developed over the years.

Rather, they were locked in a close race at the Manatee County Championship swim meet.

“I would call it a competitive friendship,” Ober said. “We’re friends outside of the pool, but in a race we’re competitors. After the race, whatever happens, we’re still friends.”

Freed, a Bradenton Christian sophomore, bested Ober, a Bayshore High junior, in the girls 100-yard backstroke. The two were the class of the event with times of 58.84 and 59.12 seconds, respectively.

And they push each other in training as club swimmers for the Sarasota Tsunami Swim Team.

Last year, Ober, a two-time defending state champion, had Bayshore teammate T.C. Smith, who is now a swimmer at the University of Louisville, pushing her, too.

“T.C. just irritating her, that really would push her to that next limit,” Bayshore swim coach Aaron Bokelmann said.

Ober, the reigning Bradenton Herald girls swimmer of the year, won the 200- and 500-yard freestyle state titles in 2016.

This year, she’s still undecided what events she’ll pursue for the postseason meets that lie ahead.

That determination will come based on what Ober said she feels most comfortable with in the pool, and it will happen next week.

Part of that decision-making process rests with this weekend’s tri-county meet, where Ober is set to compete in the 500-yard freestyle.

To get back to the podium at states, Ober is continuing to improve in an area that she feels she needs to sharpen: her starts.

“That’s always been a more troublesome spot for me,” Ober said. “What my parents and my coaches say is I can beat anyone in between the walls, but it’s the start, the turns and the finishes that get me.”

Ober won the 100-yard freestyle by nearly four seconds with a finals time of 52.58 seconds.

Other individual event winners included: Braden River’s Kate Walker (girls 50-yard freestyle, 100-yrd breaststroke); Bradenton Christian’s Anna Freed (girls 200-yard individual medley, 100-yard backstroke), Sam Childers (boys diving); Lakewood Ranch’s Keely Radloff (girls 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly), Sebastian Aguirre (boys 200-yard individual medley, 100-yard backstroke), Michael McKeitlen (boys 100-yard butterfly), Quinn Lynch (boys 100-yard breaststroke); Manatee’s Molli Barron (girls 500-yard freestyle); Saint Stephen’s Alexander Webster (boys 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle), Graham Beckstein (boys 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle), Cate Mulqueen (girls diving).

Lakewood Ranch swept the county team titles, winning the boys with 548 points and the girls with 473 points.

Manatee High finished runner-up in both divisions, with 363 points in the boys and 378 points in the girls.

Southeast and Palmetto also competed.

This story was originally published October 4, 2017 at 9:27 PM with the headline "Bayshore High’s Ryley Ober preparing for run to state swim meet."