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Cougar, Raider lead group to state meet

© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 9, 2001

SARASOTA -- With some fast performances at the Class 3A, District 6 meet Wednesday, Durant, Plant City and Bloomingdale will send swimmers to the Nov. 17 state meet at the International Swimming Hall of Fame Aquatic Complex in Fort Lauderdale.

Durant's Katie Bowden captured the 500-yard freestyle title and placed second in the 200 free. She also anchored the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team and helped the 400 freestyle relay squad finish second. Bowden's time of 5 minutes, 11.80 seconds was more than 12 seconds slower than her best time of 4:59, but she believes she will improve at the state meet.

"I will need to swim around the 4:50 mark to win the state championship," she said. "By then we will all be tapered off with our training to conserve energy and have it available for the state finals. Hopefully, our entire team will be ready to do better at the state meet. That is what we have been training for."

The Cougars placed fifth with 234 points, followed by Bloomingdale with 209.

Sarasota's powerful girls team outdistanced the field to win with 436 points. Naples was runner-up with 255, followed by Venice at 245 and Sarasota Riverview at 239.

Other local finishers included ninth-place Plant City (87) and 10th-place Riverview (46).

Even with no individual champions, Durant's boys finished second with 230.5 points, far behind Sarasota's 512.5. Plant City finished fourth with 214.5, Bloomingdale was seventh with 158 and Riverview was 11th with 46.

Freestyle sprint specialist Tommy Pollock of Plant City won the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events and anchored the second-place 200 and 400 free relays.

He will be joined at state by Durant's David Ellis, who tied for second and placed third in the 50 and 100 free. "I didn't think we would finish in the top three because of the tough competition in our district," Ellis said. "Everyone wanted to qualify for state, though, and we just swam tough in each event to qualify ... "

Kyle Steanberg, Ryan Kearney and Josh Keller joined Ellis for third on the 200 free relay team and also earned a trip to state.

"We were surprised by the finish of both girls and boys," Durant coach Chau Clark said. "The boys did especially well after losing four top state swimmers to graduation from last year's team."

Other Hillsborough County qualifiers included Matt Brody of Bloomingdale, third in the 500 freestyle, and Plant City's James Riggsbee, Bucky Banks, Todd Nelson and Clinton Schreckengost, who qualified for the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. Durant's Lindsay Overman placed second in the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke to qualify.

Cougar teammates Alana Shawah and Brittany Fabry joined Bowden and Overman on the winning 200 freestyle relay team and on the second-place 400 freestyle relay team.

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