Area swimmers poised to make splash at district meet

For four area swim programs, today marks the beginning of what each hopes to be a fairy tale ending.

On the heels of Thursday’s diving competition, Choctawhatchee, Fort Walton Beach, Navarre and Niceville will take part in the swimming portion of today’s District 1-2A Swimming and Diving meet at The University of West Florida Aquatic Center. Prelims are set to get underway at 9 a.m. with Finals scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. tonight.

The top 16 performers from each event in this morning’s prelims will move onto tonight’s finals where only the top eight finishers punch their ticket for regionals.

As veteran Choctaw coach Jamie Garea put it, the object – however difficult to reach - is fairly straight-forward.

“Our goal is to get there and have the best swim of the season,” said the Indians’ seventh-year coach. “For some it’s to make the top eight, for some of them, that means making the Top 16 and swimming again at night, but across the board the big goal is to have the swim of the season.”

A year ago it was Fort Walton Beach that did just that, as its boys team captured the district crown and its girls finished second.

Still, even after placing nine boys and six girls into the regional meet last season, seventh-year Vikings’ coach Pam Braseth knows how much things can change over the course of a year.

“It’s going to be a tough meet,” Braseth said. “You never know how it’s going to fall but you just want your kids to do well and take that first stepping stone in the championship series.”

Fort Walton Beach’s hopes of defending its boys’ crown will rest largely on the shoulders of David Stevens, Josh Simmons, Cody Conant, Joseph Mackenzie and Daniel Craig. It was that same group that helped lead the Vikings to a win in last week’s County Championships.

“They have been very consistent in practice and working hard all year long,” Braseth said.

On the girls’ side, Braseth pointed to a battle-tested group led by Brooke Arrington, Natalie Lenderman, Linsi VerSteeg and Jaime Gantert that she feels confident can give the Vikings’ a strong contingent in next week’s regional meet.

“They’re all swimming pretty strong and have been building all season,” Braseth noted. “Now we’ll see how it all falls out.”

Last season, Choctaw advanced nine swimmers to the regional meet with Alex Strom eventually finishing third at state in the 500 freestyle en route to garnering All-American status. Strom entered today’s meet seeded first in both the 200 free and 500 free with teammate Christian Johnston also highly seeded in those same events, according to Garea.

On the girls’ side for Choctaw, Olivia Strom is seeded in the top three in both the 200 IM and the 500 freestyle while Cheryl Corvo, another one of the Indians’ leading swimmers this season, is seeded first in the 100 fly.

“The kids are really excited,” Garea said.

Navarre returns state performer Chrissy Parsons in both the 200 IM and 100 breast stroke.

Niceville, having since moved down from the 3A ranks to 2A, returns last year’s state performer, Ross Spock, who is once again seeded first in the 100 backstroke. Alexa Birmingham headlines an Eagles’ girls’ team looking to make some headway off of a fourth-place showing at County.

“I’m hoping to see a few of our kids move up to regions and get a better time than they already have,” Niceville coach Kathy Ritacco said.