CVST at FLAGS Long Course Championships
CVST at FLAGS Long Course Championships
July 16-19 the Carrollwood Village Swim Team sent 7 athletes to the Florida Swimming Age-Group Swimming Long Course Championships (FLAGS) held in Sarasota at the Potter Park YMCA. CVST swimmers Abby Forman (13), Logan Ingerick (11), Kaitlyn Labella (10), Madison Houck (10), Madison Ratchford (9), Ava Edwards (9), and Jayden Repak (9) joined 853 of best 14 and Under age-group swimmers that Florida has to offer in what turned out to be a fast, rain soaked event (15 records broken by 7 different swimmers and three relays). To limit the size of the meet, FLAGS require some of the fastest qualifying times in the nation. For Houck, Ratchford, Edwards, and Repak, this was their first FLAGS Championship meet and for the first time they saw chase starts. These are starts where swimmers in events 100 meters or longer start from both sides of the 50 meter pool. When the first heat is half way down the pool on their second lap, the next heat will start from their end and follow right behind the heat in front of them. Seconds after the first heat climbs out, the second heat flips their turn and when they reach the half way point, the third heat will follow right behind them and so on.
At the meet CVST swam remarkably well, swimming to life time best in 17 out of 23 individual events. Abby Forman (13) and Logan Ingerick (11) started off Thursday morning in the rain. (and it rained biblically every session until Sunday) Abby dropped 3.86 seconds in her 100m Fly and Logan 1.87 seconds in his 100m Freestyle. Logan continued on to place 12th in Finals later that night. On Friday, Logan and Abby both swam to best times in their 200 Freestyle events and Abby followed a great swim with another by dropping 18.41 seconds in her 400m IM. Friday’s second session brought in the 10 and Under timed final events. After warming up twice, a near lightning strike during the national anthem and two other delays the meet finally got started with the CVST girls 10 and Under free Relay placing 19th. Kaitlyn Labella followed her relay swim by dropping 10.09 seconds in her individual 200m Freestyle. Madison Houck and Jayden Repak continued on with the fast swimming by dropping 7.78 seconds and .90 seconds in their 50m Butterfly respectively. Saturday’s preliminary events saw more rain and Logan Ingerick make the consolation finals in his 50m Fly where he placed 15th . Logan and Abby also swam the 400 meter Freestyle with best times. Leading off Saturday’s 10 and Under timed final session was the girls 200m Medley Relay. Madison Houck started off the relay by jumping out in front of the field with a personal best and 3 second drop in her 50m backstroke leg, Kaitlyn Labella swam the breast stroke, Ava Edwards the Fly and Madison Ratchford anchored with the Freestyle leg in an exciting race to the finish only to find out that they were disqualified for surpassing the 15 meter mark on an underwater dolphin kick. Madison Houck followed up the relay, with a personal best time in her individual 50m Backstroke. Jayden Repak and Labella swam the 50m Freestyle where Jayden dropped .33 seconds while Labella continued on to drop 10.09 seconds in her 400m Freestyle. During Sunday’s Preliminary session, the rain stopped. Sunday morning saw Logan Ingerick come back from a disappointing 200 IM to make the consolation finals in his 100m backstroke and Abby Forman drop .98 seconds in her 200m IM and drop an impressive 23.91 seconds off her 1500m Freestyle time. The 10 & U afternoon session saw Kaitlyn Labella swim the 100m Free and 50m Breaststroke and Madison Houck swim to a personal best 100m Backstroke. Sunday’s finals saw Logan Ingerick go out fast in his consolation final of the 11-12 year old boys 100m back, fall behind on the second 50 and roar back to win the consolation finals to finish off a great meet for CVST.
