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Durant salvages night in relay

By JOHN C. COTEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 18, 2000

ORLANDO -- The Durant girls swim team started their night finishing fifth in the 200 medley relay, and in doing so were one of two teams in the final not to drop any time off their preliminary race. Carrie Ellis then failed to defend either of her state titles in the 50 and 100 free. Katie Bowden shaved almost two seconds off the deficit incurred during morning preliminaries, and still finished second in the 500 free.

So when the last event in a disappointing night for the Cougars rolled around, just how badly did they need something, anything, to salvage the night?

"Really, really, really bad," Ellis said.

In a night filled with silver and lost titles for Hillsborough County swimmers, the Durant 400-yard free relay team was able to end the Class 3A State Swimming and Diving championships on a high note with a convincing win at the Orlando YMCA Aquatics Center.

Opening a tight race, Ellis swam a 51.13 split on the final leg of the race to blow away the the field in giving Durant a winning time of 3 minutes, 32.11 seconds, setting a school record by two seconds and beating second-place Gainesville Buchholz by just under four seconds.

"She does that all the time," said Chelsie Krieg of Ellis's finish.

And never at a better time.

"I felt like we needed a first big time," said Bowden, who swam the leadoff leg.

Ellis failed to win the events she captured last year. In both, she was beaten by Delray Beach Atlantic freshman Rhiannon Jeffrey, an Olympic Trials participant last year and a national champion.

"I didn't even know that she'd be here," Ellis said. "I came in here thinking there wouldn't be much competition. But when I saw her I was like, "Whoa.' "

Ellis lost the 50 by 23.39 to 23.45, and the 100 by 50.36-50.62.

The Durant girls, third last year, finished fifth with 160 points as Winter Park won the championship for the 15th time.

Ellis wasn't the only defending state champ to lose as Plant City's Tommy Pollock also took the silver in the 50 and 100. Pollock was the defending champ in the 100, but could not overtake Wellington's Bryce Clough, who edge the Raider junior 46.21-46.58.

In the 50, Pollock lost by almost an identical margin to Winter Park's Joel Roycik, 21.03-21.42.

Both his times, however, qualified Pollock for the U.S. Open, which he said was his goal.

"Coming into the meet I didn't know what to expect," Pollock said. "It was definitely frustrating not winning, but I achieved my goal and I'm really happy with that."

Pollock also swam on two relay teams that scored points, helping Plant City to 11th place with 72 points, the best in school history.

Other who scored points: Amy Mueller of Hillsborough (fifth in the 500 free and 200 IM) and teammate Crystal Bickoff (12th in the 100 butterfly), Lindsay Overman (seventh in the 100 breaststroke) and Rich McGrath of Durant (ninth in the 100 and 200 IM), Jackie Cavalieri of Gaither (6th in the 200 IM), and Adam Szabuino of Wharton who was 13th in the 100 backstroke.

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