OCALA - Orange Park senior freestyle sprinter Sebastian Lopez knew he had a sub-22 second 50 free in the bag despite a horrific starting block slip at regions that cost him a region title to add to his district title with the gaff giving Lopez a 22.23 split for fifth in the region 1-3A championship after a 21.55 got him the district title a week prior.

No problem.

"We knew what he could do," said Orange Park swim coach Susan Johnson, after the region mishap. "My job was to keep him calm, loose, and prepared. His three times in the 50 were massive to come back from the region meet with a 21.5, a 21.3, and a 21.1 in one day was amazing."

Regroup would be an understatement as Lopez stormed through his 50 free preliminaries with a fifth-best 21.30 en route to an even better 21.13 finals split for fourth place with third place being a 21.05 by Fletcher's Merrick Vanscoy behind the top two splits of 20.89 by Nease senior Jack Mainville and St. Petersburg's Christian Guettler's 21.01 in one of the fastest events of the day at Ocala's FAST swim venue at Friday's Class 3A swimming and diving championships.

At the region meet, Mainville won the region title with a 21.53 split with Vanscoy third at 22.03.

"Everyone will be faster in a state title event," said Johnson, noting that someone may be able to attack former Clay High state champion Caeleb Dressel's 19.29 split that has been the state record for a decade when Dressel led off the Blue Devils 200 free relay with the record setting split. "That's crazy fast and makes these swimmers appreciate how good Caeleb was."

In Lopez' second event, the 100 freestyle, the anticipated matchup up top between defending champion Owen Ekk of Chiles, a sophomore, and Winter Springs junior Ian Malone, a junior, was all that swim fans could imagine after Ekk blasted the region field with a 45.56 split to outduel Malone's 45.80 for the region title, with Lopez fifth at a "distant" 47.88.

In Ocala, it was Malone who caught the right wave (surfing lingo) to rip a 44.63 split to oust Ekk's 45.12 to take the gold.

Lopez dropped time from his 47.88 to finish seventh in 46.38 with Mainville fourth at 45.70.

For Fleming Island diver Ava Brinkman, the 2023 Class 3A champion and the 2024 runnerup by less than a point, the rivalry with Winter Springs senior Hadley Futch ended classically with the two potential Olympians duking out a 453.85-452.10 win for Brinkman that was far away from third place finisher Sophia Cavaretta, a freshman, who had a 423.75 score. The top three were the only divers above 400 points scored.

"This one was super exciting and I'm so grateful because it was all about locking in and doing what I needed to get the gold," said Brinkman, who missed her freshman opportunity with a freakish diving accident after winning districts, then gold after returning from injury, then second by less than a point her junior season, and, now, a gold, by about 1.7 points over Futch, her most cherished rival of sorts all four times. "Hadley and I said hi before the meet, did our diving with the final dives leaving the arena quiet enough to hear a pin drop, then both of us on the podium again. She has been a great rival and great friend. It is such an honor to say you won two state titles."

Brinkman, like Lopez, had one horrendous dive in her region competition and entered the state competition with a 428.85 score for her region title while Futch came in with an intimidating score of 558.10.

"I survived my injury to come back, so the bad dive was not as big a deal," said Brinkman. "That failed dive was the first I have ever had in competition and I did the same dive at state and nailed it. It was a tough mental test for me but I only had a week to review and forget about it."

The pair has been either first or second for the past three state championship meets with Futch 13th as a freshman and Brinkman out of the meet due to injury.

"She led the entire diving competition and in the final round, Hadley was going to dive after her," said Andrea Brinkman, Ava's mom. "The entire FAST arena was silent for Hadley's last dive and when she finished the dive, everyone was looking at the scoreboard and a big sigh of relief was so loud."

For Fleming Island, who had a handful of young swimmers on the blocks in Ocala, it was sophomore William Shoesmith who battled defending state champions and 2024 region champions in the 200 individual medley; Owen Ekk of Chiles in the 200IM, with Shoesmith finishing fourth in 1:51.25 to Ekk's winning 1:47.07. Shoesmith, second to Ekk at regions, dropped nearly two seconds of 200IM time while in Ocala with a 1:54.71 entry time, a 1:52.73 prelim time, and a final 1:51.25 finals split with Ekk coming in with a region title at 1:51.40, a prelim of 1:47.36 and his finals time of 1:47.07.

In the 500 free, Shoesmith saw the Ekk name a second time with senior Ethan Ekk the top seed with a region title time of 4:25.57 while Shoesmith came in with a third at regions in 4:37.95.

At the Class 3A championship meet, Ekk stayed close to his region time with a prelim of 4:25.14 but blasted through a 4:19.58 to win with Shoesmith dropping down to a 4:34.43 in prelims, but slower at 4:34.93 in the final for a final 10th place finish. Ekk opened with a 48.96 first 100 and finished with a 51.42 for the win. Shoesmith opened fast at 51.01 but swam four 55-plus 100 splits to the finish.

Fleming Island's second double event swimmer that made her finals was distance ace Elizabeth Loehr who finished with an eighth in the 200 free in 1:54.51 and a 10th in the 500 free in 5:06.4.

Katelyn Moore, a 50 and 100 free specialist for Fleming Island, finished one spot out of the two finals with a 17th place prelim time of 25.24; slightly faster than her 25.59 split that got 11th at the region meet and a challenge of a car from her dad for a sub-25 state split. Moore also swam in the 100 free with an 18th best of 55.66, also faster than her seed time of 56.14.

For Clay High, junior breaststroke Kylie Elrod broke her own school record in the event to get sixth place with a 1:07.31 in the final, but the record, 1:06.85, in the prelim. Elrod also was 12th in the 200IM at 2:15.11 to better her 2:15.76 prelim time and scorch her 2:17.70 from regions for 11th.

Clay also had freshman Noah Stotler on the blocks with the speedy sibling to state champion Sara Stotler finishing 13th in the 200 free in 1:44.27 and 15th in the 100 butterfly in 52.44. Both event splits were bettered in prelims and in the finals.

Region 1-1A Swim Championships

St. Johns Country Day School qualified teams in the girls and boys 200 medley relay, Eleanor Myers in the 200IM and 100 free, Gaige Jackson in the boys 200IM, Alexandra Kuczkowski and Isa Johnson in the 50 free, Josh Lewis in the 50 and 100 free, the boys and girls 200 free relays, Alexandra Kuczkowski in the 100 breaststroke and Addison Kuczkowski in the 100 breaststroke to the region 1-1A championship meet held November 5 at the Bolles School.

Final results were 16th in the 200 medley relay (Isa Johnson, Alexandra Kuczkowski, Eleanor Myers, Frances Bailey) in 2:14.35 and 14th for the boys 200 medley relay (Beau Braddock, Gaige Jackson, Josh Lewis, Ashe Hendrix) in 1:59.58.

In the 200IM, Myers was 16th in 2:31.24 (winner 2:01.45) and also 20th in the 100 free in 1:01.17 (winner 49.71).

Gaige Jackson was 17th in the 200IM in 2:19.17 (winner 1:48.72).

Alexandra Kuczkowski finished 17th in the 50 free in 27.88 (winner 23.17) and 19th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:19.03 (winner 1:02.19).

Isa Johnson finished 24th in the 50 free in 30.11 (winner 23.17).

Josh Lewis finished 24th in the 50 free in 24.66 (winner 20.17) and 18th in the 100 free in 52.79 (winner 44.64).

Addison Kuczkowski finished 23rd in the 100 breaststroke in 1:20.46 (winner 1:02.19).

The girls 200 free relay finished 10th (Isa Johnson, Addison Kuczkowski, Andrea Kuczkowski, Eleanor Myers) in 1:53.78 (winner 1:33.74).

The boys 200 free relay finished 14th (Gaige Jackson, Beau Braddock, Asher Hendrix, Josh Lewis) in 1:41.94 (winner 1:22.26).

St. Johns girls finished 19th with the boys finishing 20th. Bolles won the girls with 704 points with Bolles winning the boys with 690.