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High-water mark
By TERRY JONES © St. Petersburg Times, published April 22, 2001
The 11-year-old Carrollwood resident captured four gold, one silver and three bronze medals in the national event that attracted 17 large clubs from across the country. In team competition, Carrollwood placed third behind first-place Northern West Chester, N.Y. and runner-up SwimFlorida from Sarasota. Individual national titles were won by four Carrollwood swimmers in addition to Lewkowicz. Lewkowicz, who raced as a 10-year-old at the time, won her national titles in the 50- and 100-yard butterfly plus the 50 freestyle and backstroke. Her silver medal was in the 50 breaststroke and she won bronze in the 100 and 500 freestyle and the 200 individual medley. "Emeri had some great swims in the meet," said Jim Kelly, Carrollwood Village Swim Team head coach. "In addition to her national championships and other medals, she scored enough points to place second overall nationally in her age group." Amy Mueller, 16, Grant Nelson, 15, Tay Bray, 12, and Greggory Cooke, 9, also won national titles. Bray won her national title in the 100 breaststroke. She also added seconds in the 100 freestyle and individual medley races and third in the 50, 200 and 500 freestyle events. Mueller, one of the top high school distance swimmers in Hillsborough County, won gold in the 100 butterfly and 1,650 freestyle. She added silver in the 200 and 400 individual medleys, 100 backstroke and 500 freestyle. She added bronze in the 200 backstroke and 200 butterfly. Grant, another top distance swimmer in the county, captured the 1,650 freestyle gold and added silver in the 200 and 500 freestyle races, plus a bronze in the 200 butterfly. Cooke competed in only two evens, but made his presence known in both. He won his national championship in the 500 freestyle and added silver in the 200 individual medley. All four added personal honors by placing second nationally in individual scoring for their age groups. Katie Cook, a promising 8-year-old, didn't win a first-place championship, but totaled enough points to score the second highest number of points of any competitor in her age group. She placed second in the 25 and 50 breaststroke, the 25 butterfly and freestyle and the 100 individual medley. In addition, she added bronze in the 50 and 100 freestyle, 25 and 50 backstroke, plus the 50 butterfly. In relay team competition, three Carrollwood teams captured medals for finishing in the top three. For boys 11-12, Dustin Frissell, 12, Jonathan Pitocco, 12, Sullivan Lynch, 11, and Stephen Sheridan, 12, combined their skills to win a silver medal in the 200-yard freestyle in a club record time of one minute, 52.8 seconds. The Carrollwood girls beat the boys' time in the same distance relay for the same age. With a time of 1:54.14, Brittany Went, Gina Mayer, Megan Cook and Bray, set another club record, only to finish third in an extremely fast field. Also in the 11-12 age group for girls, Adrienne Fernandez, Hannah Tringham, Cook and Bray united their versatile talents to place third in the medley relay with a time of 2:12.68. The medley relay includes legs of the race in the backstroke, freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke. "In all this was a pretty good meet for our team," Kelly said.
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