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Realistic Pirates pleased with results
By KRISTEN LEIGH PORTER During Friday's Class A state meet, Crystal River coach Tim Holme surveyed the competition. The top eight boys and girls teams were all private schools, led by dual winner Jacksonville Bolles. A national record was set in the 50 freestyle by Gulliver Prep's Christina Swindle, who nearly set another in the 100 free. Six Crystal River athletes qualified for state, and although none made the finals, Holme was happy with the showing. He just wishes the Pirates had a year-round facility with a heated pool to train in and starting blocks like many of the schools. That is why, he says, he will continue to buy a lottery ticket every week. "Am I frustrated? I admit it," Holme said. "We'll swim against them as long as they require us to swim against them and our kids will swim well, they'll swim fast and they'll do better than they have all season, but it's almost an impossible task." The Pirates recognize what they are up against and their attitude has been positive for years, Holme said. After starting the program at Crystal River in 1992, Holme's Pirates have qualified for state every year since 1995. Senior Nick Manzoli, who swam with the 400-yard freestyle relay, said it used to be a little intimidating going against the top private schools. "You know you're not going to drop 20 seconds from your time and get first place or anything," Manzoli said. "So I guess it does kind of take some pressure off depending how you look at it." His relay recorded a season-best 3:33.20, bettering the 3:36.96 it swam at the district meet, to finish 24th in the preliminaries. The quartet of Manzoli, Matt Washington, Keith Martin and Ash Preston all individually dropped time. Although they had hopes of breaking the school record of 3:31.94, the Pirates were happy with their performance, according to Manzoli. "We dropped three seconds from our time the previous week and that was pretty good to do in just seven days," Manzoli said. "It was going to be pretty tough to break the record, but we kind of used that as an incentive to keep ourselves focused and work harder that whole week. I was still really happy with the outcome." The Pirates were faster than last year's state qualifying 400 free relay team, which included Preston and had been 19th in the prelims with a 3:34.83. In the 1-meter diving competition, junior Aaron Washington was 25th of 25 divers with 102.20 points. He was 16th last year. Sophomore Courtney Chandler finished 30th out of 38 divers with 131.30. Chandler said she did well for being so nervous in her first state appearance. "You've just got to suck it up and go for it, that's the only way to do it," she said. While checking out the other divers, she also took note of techniques to improve her own dives. Chandler hopes to attend a dive camp in Orlando during the offseason. "I know I'm an okay diver but I think I would be a lot prettier of a diver if I took the time to concentrate on my form," Chandler said. "I usually just concentrate on getting the dive done, like completing it." The only other county competitor at state was Citrus' Charles Osterhout, who finished 36th in the 100 breaststroke prelims of Saturday's 2A meet. He was clocked in at 1:09. -- Kristen Leigh Porter can be reached at porter@sptimes.com or 564-3628.
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