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TRINITY - Mitchell's turnaround season keeps getting better, as the Mustangs boys and girls split with Pasco on Wednesday and swept Ridgewood on Monday.
Mitchell's boys lost 89-67 to Pasco before a 99-53 win over Ridgewood. The Mustangs won both girls meets, beating the Pirates 96-82 and Rams 111-63.
That gives the boys a 3-1 start and moves the girls to 4-0. Not bad for a team that had just one girls victory in three previous seasons.
"They just want to win," Mitchell coach Lynne Worker said. "They want it really bad."
Mitchell's girls will be tested by Gulf (3-0) on Oct. 1 in a tri-meet with Zephyrhills and Oct. 15 against Land O'Lakes (3-1). Both meets are on the road.
"They want Gulf. They want Land O'Lakes," Worker said. "Those are the two top dogs."
Land O'Lakes coach Robin Hilgenberg welcomes the challenge.
"It's good to see that they're getting better, but I still think it's Gulf and us," Hilgenberg said of the girls' race for the Sunshine Athletic Conference title. "It'll be good to swim against Mitchell for some good competition before conference."
The two-day SAC meet at the New Port Richey pool begins Oct. 17, two days after the Mitchell-Land O'Lakes meet.
BACK ON TRACK: Zephyrhills' girls and boys followed losses to Land O'Lakes with victories against Ridgewood and Crystal River to improve to 2-1.
"They're both pretty darn equal," Zephyrhills coach Brian Vaile said of his teams, although the girls team barely beat Crystal River 93-91.
So far Zephyrhills' best event has been boys diving. Glen Switzer, Michael Caselnova and Randy Mueller have finished 1-2-3 in all three meets, the only event in which Zephyrhills hastaken the top three in each meet.
Mueller's performance is the most surprising, because the senior also lines up at wide receiver and defensive back for the football team. Mueller is the fourth football player coached by Vaile in five seasons at Tampa Catholic and the past two at Zephyrhills.
"I never had a football player who could swim that well and dive, too," Vaile said of Mueller, who also has earned points in the freestyle sprints and on relay teams.
HONORS: There were nine changes, six on the boys side, to this week's honor roll. The replacements include (see box for times):
- Boys: 200-yard freestyle, Michael Mansfield (Rwd); 50 free, Adam Heisner (Zeph); Diving, Gregg Strange (Mit); 100 butterfly, Chris Obara (LOL); 100 free, Ross Coscia (Pas); 200 free relay, Pasco's Luke Johnson, Colt Pennington, Orey Clark and Coscia.
- Girls: Diving, Kaci Ressler (LOL); 100 free, Amanda Kuerner (Hud); 100 backstroke, Joy Taylor (Rwd).