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Busy weekend on tap

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 19, 2001

Taper time is right around the corner, when area swimmers will begin to shut down serious training to begin tapering for November's district and state meets.

But for the next two weekends, teams and individuals can forget about those "serious" events and earn extra ribbons and medals for the trophy cases at a number of invitationals.

This weekend almost every area team will compete in either the St. Petersburg City Meet or the Rotary Invitational in Clearwater, and next weekend the North County Invitational and Clearwater Central Catholic Marauder Invitational will provide tests before district meets.

In the city meet, the competition will certainly be closer than last year, when the Northeast boys and girls turned it into a rout with wins in 17 of 22 swimming events. But one year later, St. Petersburg stands as perhaps the favorite on both the boys' and girls' sides.

Northeast boasts big names at the top, including Jordan Raynovich, Brad Snyder and Haley Skaggs, but St. Petersburg has strong relays and perhaps a better top-to-bottom lineup.

"They have a lot of depth," Northeast coach Bill Burrows said. "In order for us to win it we're going to have to not make any mistakes."

Every team in the Rotary Invitational could say the same thing, considering Jacksonville Bolles is bringing a portion of its powerhouse team. Bolles has won 13 consecutive boys state titles and 11 consecutive girls crowns.

North county will be well represented, however, as Clearwater, Clearwater Central Catholic, Countryside, Dunedin, East Lake Palm Harbor U. and Seminole will compete.

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