The boys and girls swim teams from Wellington High School had another strong showing at this year’s Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Class 4A swimming and diving championships. This event took place Saturday, Nov. 9 in Ocala.
Under the guidance of head coach Richard Whalen, WHS sent nine swimmers and divers to states. They were senior Leorah Rotchin (girls 200-yard freestyle), junior Dillon Metz (boys 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle), freshman Veronica Metz (girls 200-yard individual medley and 500-yard freestyle), sophomore Julian Granison (boys 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle) and junior Andreas Da Silva (boys 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke). Juniors Natalie Honzik, Lainsley Stegall and Everhart Fergus were members of relay teams, while sophomore Lucabella Imbimbo competed in the one-meter diving competition.
Wellington also had teams competing in the girls 200-yard freestyle relay, boys 200-yard freestyle relay, girls 400-yard freestyle relay and the boys 400-yard freestyle relay.
After swimming in the morning preliminaries, many WHS swimmers and all four relay teams advanced to compete in the evening session, which featured the Consolation B and the Championship A finals.
In the morning session, Rotchin swam the girls 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.4 and registered the 14th-fastest time. That time earned her a spot in the Consolation B final. In that race, she completed in 1:55.14, which left her in 16th place overall.
Dillon Metz’s morning preliminary time in the boys 200-yard freestyle was 1:44.51. That was the 15th fastest time, which put him in the Consolation B final, where he finished in 15th place overall, with a time of 1:44.54.
Veronica Metz had the 11th-fastest preliminary race time (2:09.00) in the girls 200-yard individual medley, which advanced her to the Consolation B final. In the evening race, she improved her time to 2:08.63, which left her in 10th place overall. In the girls 500-yard freestyle, Metz swam the 20-lap preliminary race in 5:03.13, which was the eighth-fastest time. That earned her the final spot in the Championship A final, which gave her a chance to win a state championship that evening. In the final, Metz swam nearly an identical time (5:03.18) to her morning effort and moved up a spot to seventh place in the state.
In the boys 50-yard freestyle, Granison had the fifth-fastest time (20.84) in the morning preliminaries, which earned him a spot in the Championship A final. In the evening session, he completed the two-lap race in 20.68, good enough for an overall fifth-place finish. In the boys 100-yard freestyle, Granison had the sixth-fastest time (45.42) in the morning preliminaries, which qualified him for the Championship A final. There, he swam the 100-yard race in 45.63, which was fast enough for sixth place in the state.
In the boys 100-yard freestyle, Da Silva’s morning preliminary time was fast (45.84), but not fast enough to earn a spot in the Championship A final. Instead, he was the fastest qualifier in the Consolation B final. In that race, Da Silva came alive and swam in 44.71, more than a second faster than his morning effort. He easily won the Consolation B final, which earned him a ninth-place finish overall. Had Da Silva been swimming in the Championship A final, his time of 44.71 would have earned him a third-place finish overall in the state. To his credit, Da Silva’s clocking (44.71) was an Automatic All-American standard time. In the 100-yard backstroke, Da Silva had a strong swim (50.00) in the morning. It was the fourth-fastest time among the boys in that event. In the Championship A final, Da Silva swam a faster time (49.39) but finished in fourth place. The winning time in the boys 100-yard backstroke was 47.32 by Dylan Ferguson of G. Holmes Braddock High School in Miami.
In the relay events, Wellington’s girls 200-yard freestyle relay team (Leorah Rotchin, Veronica Metz, Natalie Honzik and Lainsley Stegall) finished in 11th place (1:40.06), while Wellington’s boys 200-yard freestyle relay (Andreas Da Silva, Dillon Metz, Everhart Fergus and Julian Granison) finished in second place (1:23.89). The winning team in the boys 200-yard freestyle relay was Windermere High School (1:22.71). Wellington’s finish was in an Automatic All-American time. In the girls 400-yard freestyle relay, Wellington’s squad (Rotchin, Honzik, Stegall and Metz) finished in 14th place (3:43.22), while Wellington’s boys 400-yard freestyle relay team (Granison, Metz, Fergus and Da Silva) finished in fourth place.
In the girls one-meter diving competition, Imbimbo finished in 22nd place with 139.55 points.
In the overall team standings, the Wellington girls earned 37 points. They finished the Class 4A meet in 16th place. Sarasota’s Riverview High School won the girls division with 378 points. The Wellington boys earned 117 points and finished in seventh place in the Class 4A meet. In the Class 4A division, Wellington had the highest finishing girls and boys swimming teams in Palm Beach County.
