In a battle of Florida 1A powers, the Saint Andrew’s School and Pine Crest faced off in a co-ed dual meet on Tuesday at the Duff Tyler Aquatic Complex.
With the home-pool advantage, the 10-0 Saint Andrew’s Scots women welcomed in the 7-0 Pine Crest Panthers, but it was Pine Crest who came away with a narrow 1-point victory. That marks Saint Andrew’s first dual meet loss since Pine Crest last beat them: in October of 2011.
The boys’ meet was also very tight, though not quite as tight as the girls were, with Saint Andrew’s coming away from that one with a 105-80 victory.
Tyla Martin was a big scorer for the Pine Crest women in their victory. She started the meet of win a win in the girls’ 200 free, swimming a 1:56.55 to top Saint Andrews’ Cassidy Blackwin, who took 2nd in 1:57.18. Blackwin would win the 500 free in 5:13.79 later in the meet.
The Florida commit came back later in the meet as the only swimmer under a minute in the 100 fly, touching in 58.58 for a second victory.
Meanwhile, Louisville commit Rachel Bradford-Feldman swam very well for the Saint Andrew’s School in a losing effort. She swam a 2:06.02 to win the 200 IM over Pine Crest’s Lindsey Swartz (2:08.49). Feldman was a double-winner as well, topping Swartz again in the 100 breaststroke by a margin of 1:05.67-1:06.39.
Megan Moroney also grabbed two individual events for Saint Andrew’s, taking the 100 free (50.81) and 100 back (57.66). That 100 free time is a sharp early swim, and just 1.3 seconds short of her lifetime best already.
Saint Andrew’s also swept the relay, with Moroney anchoring the 200 medley and 200 free relays.
Saint Andrew’s won a lot of events, but Pine Crest’s depth, and an impressive 1-2-3 finish in diving led by Carolyn Chaney, carried Pine Crest to the overall win.
The Saint Andrew’s boys also swept the relays, including a 1:41.54 in the lead-off 200 medley relay.
Pine Crest made this meet a battle early, thanks to a win in the 200 free from John Graner in 1:51.98. He put in a distance sweep, with a 5:01.90 in the 500 free, but Saint Andrew’s took 2nd and 3rd in both races to offset the effect of the win.
Saint Andrew’s has a promising young sophomore Nick Sharp who was impressive on Tuesday. He won both the 200 IM (2:01.83) and 100 backstroke (54.74).
The two teams will see each other again during championship season, which begins in two weeks with District meets. Last year, the Saint Andrew’s girls were 2nd and Pine Crest girls were 3rd, both behind champions Bolles; the Pine Crest boys were 3rd and the Saint Andrew’s boys were 7th.
Nick Sharp is going to be a superstar!
You gotta love how Coach Sid Cassidy does his thing! Looks like a great rivalry brewing here. Wish we saw more meets like this in Iowa.
Good luck to both programs the rest of the season.