CVST Sends 3 Swimmers To FLAGS
CVST Sends 3 Swimmers To FLAGS
The Carrollwood Village Swim Team (CVST) is sending three swimmers to the Florida Swimming Age-Group Swimming Championships to be held July 17th to 20th at the O’Connell Center on the University of Florida Campus. The entries are in with over 1000 athletes, making this one of the largest and fastest age-group meets in the country. The four day meet starts off on Thursday, with Abby Forman swimming in the 12 year-old girls 800 meter Freestyle. Abby is the number two seed and CVST’s highest seed overall. On Friday, 10 year-olds Mabry Bishop and Logan Ingerick join the action. This is Mabry’s first FLAGS, as she has qualified in five events, and this is Logan’s third FLAGS and he is primed to score in all six of his events.
The road to the FLAGS meet started last off last year with the qualifying times carrying over to this year. At last year’s meet, Forman’s finish in the 800m Freestyle ranked her first among the 11 year-old Florida swimming athletes and 11th in the nation for all 11 year-old girls, but swimming in Florida’s tough 11-12 year old girls age-group she finished in 10th place. This year the meet has changed and with the exception of the 10 and Under age-groups, there is no top or bottom of any age-group as each swimmer is competing against swimmers their own age.
After last year’s long course FLAGS, the road continued on to this year’s short course FLAGS held in March. (The short course season runs September to March and is swum with the American 25 yard distance while the long course season runs April through August with the more international 50 meter distance and pool) CVST sent just Forman and Ingerick to the meet, but those two swimmers earned CVST the 3rd highest average points per swimmer in all of Florida Swimming.
CVST’s long course season started off on June 6th by hosting the Tampa Bay Swim Classic at St. Petersburg’s North Shore pool. This was a fantastic meet for all of CVST’s swimmers as they got their first taste of a long course meet since last summer with personal best times flowing for almost all of the returning age-group swimmers, but one of the most stunning personal best times came when Ingerick smashed a 31 year-old team record in the 10 and Under boys 200 meter Freestyle. Two weeks later at Largo’s Summer Invite Ingerick would win the 10 and Under Boys Individual High Point award and Bishop would qualify in her first individual FLAGS event in the 50m Freestyle.
July found CVST at St. Petersburg’s North Shore Pool again with the SPA Last Chance meet held July 4-6th. This was the last chance to qualify for CVST to qualify in a long course pool for the FLAGS meet and with an entire team cheering, Bishop qualified in the 100m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke. Forman warmed up the upcoming 800m FLAGS event by swimming her first long course mile, the 1500m Freestyle. While Ingerick tuned up for his upcoming FLAGS by breaking his own team record in the 200m Freestyle and setting new team records in the 200m Breast stroke, 200m Butterfly, 800m Freestyle, and 1500m Freestyle.
The Final stop on the road to Gainesville was a Last, Last Chance meet held on a Wednesday night, July 9th, just hours before the FLAGS entry deadline. CVST sent a limited number of swimmers to this qualifying meet. But at this meet, Ingerick and Bishop continued where they left off. Ingerick breaking his 6th team record of the summer the 10 and Under Boys 50 yard Freestyle and Bishop qualifying in two more events the 100 yard Back stroke and the 200 yard Freestyle.
