GAINESVILLE - A first place by two seconds in the breaststroke and a second place by less than a second in the 200 individual medley by sophomore Kylie Elrod fueled a district 3-2A third-place finish for the Clay High girls swim team in action on October 19 in Gainesville. Clay's boys finished second with diver Logan Siebold winning his event to lead the Blue Devils.

Elrod, 12th in 2A last year with a 1:08.26 split, won her specialty, the 100 breaststroke, with a split of one minute, 12.29 seconds to beat Ocala Vanguard's Eva Acevedo, a freshman, by nearly two seconds.

Elrod also finished second in the 200 individual medley in 2:21.74 with Eastside's Noelle Panna winning in 2:21.06.

Clay opened with a win in the first event of the meet; the 200 medley relay, featuring legs by freshman Haley Hajost, Elrod, freshman Aubry Atkinson and senior Sophia Versage with a 2:05.39 split ahead of Vanguard's 2:05.65. Versage was third in the 50 free and also leadoff for the 200 and 400 free relays that took second in both to Eastside.

Freshman Haley Hajost snared a third in the 100 backstroke as well as competed in the relays. Atkinson was third in the 100 butterfly in 1:13.20.

In the boy's meet, Clay senior Jacob Thompson and sophomore Mason Corby combined for team points. Thompson finished second in the 100 fly in 1:02.11 and fourth in the 200 free in 2:06.00 while Corby battled to sixth in the 200 free and ninth in the 500 free.

For both the girl's and boys' team points, Eastside dominated with 480 points to win the girls ahead of Vanguard at 332 and Clay at 289. In the boys, Eastside scored 539 to Clay's 268 and Vanguard's 228 for third.

Clay heads to the FAST Swim Arena in Ocala on Thurs., Oct. 26 for the region 1-2A championship.

Fleming Island, Middleburg, Orange Park and Ridgeview were scheduled for Mon., Oct. 23 for their district 2-3A with Oakleaf set for Thurs., Oct. 26 in district 1-4A.