Viking boys, girls finish second at district swim meet

The Fort Walton Beach swimming and diving team confirmed its status on top of the area heap on Friday.

The Vikings finished a solid second at the District 1-2A tournament at West Florida, and Choctawhatchee finished third on the girls side right behind Fort Walton Beach with a 227. The boys finished fourth with a 225.

The Vikings placed behind Mosley in both the boys and girls disciplines, scoring a 348 on the girls side and a 356 on the boys side. The Navarre girls finished sixth (189) and Niceville finished seventh (188). For the boys, Niceville placed eighth (132) and Navarre finished 10th (87).

The top eight individual finishers from each discipline will travel to the 1-2A regional next week, and the area will certainly be well represented. 

Though Fort Walton Beach came up short behind Mosley in the team portion, the Vikings did what mattered and placed an area-best 18 swimmers at regionals next week. Leading the charge was Samantha Laughlin, who had a first-place finish in the 50 free and a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke, where she set a new county record with a time of 59.10, a mere second off the winning pace.  

On the boys side, Fort Walton Beach’s David Stevens was scorching, finishing second in the 50 free and third in the 100 free.

Choctaw had a few strong individual finishers led by Alex Strom on the boys side. He finished first in the 200 free by a clean three seconds and also took the title in the 500 free. Not to be outdone, Cheryl Corvo took home first-place finishes in the 100 butterfly and finished second behind Laughlin in the 50 free. Olivia Strom won first place in the 500 free and was second in the 200 IM.

Niceville’s Ross Spock led the Eagles’ attack, coming in first in the 100 free and the 100 backstroke to pace Niceville. Cat Bower had Navarre's top individual performance by coming in second in the 100 breaststroke, and Chrissy Parsons had one of Navarre’s top individual showings with a fourth-place finish in the 50 free. Teresa Parsons also had a fourth-place finish in the 200 free.

All of Fort Walton Beach’s relay teams moved on, as the 200 medley and the 200 and 400 free relay in boys and girls will compete at regionals. For Choctaw, all three boys relay teams moved on and two teams will swim at regionals for the girls. Navarre qualified four relay teams.

District 1-2A meet

At the University of West Florida Aquatic Center

Girls top-five overall team finishes

1. Mosley, 428.

2. Fort Walton Beach, 348.

3. Choctawhatchee, 227.

4. Pensacola High School, 222.

5. Washington, 211.

Boys top-five overall team finishes

1. Mosley, 439.

2. Fort Walton Beach, 356.

3. Pensacola High School, 288.

4. Choctawhatchee, 225.

5. Washington High Schol, 180.