PONTE VEDRA - Orange Park sprint swimmer Sebastian Lopez ensured that his name will be among those talked about to be key players in the two fastest events in high school swimming; the 50 and 100-yard freestyles, as Lopez rocked a 21.51 split to finish second in the 50 at the Frank Holleman Invitational staged at Planet Swim in Ponte Vedra on Saturday.
The Frank Holleman Invitational is considered one of the prime meets in the high school season and, with Class 1A repeat champion Bolles and last year's boys champions for the Frank Holleman Invite on hand, the meet's prestige amplified tenfold. Ponte Vedra's girls team defeated Bolles 497-445 in 2023.
Another name to be reckoned with come November will be Fleming Island High senior diver Ava Brinkman who won the diving competition by nearly 30 points over Bolles' Alexiya Downer.
For Lopez, who got to the 50 final with a 21.79 prelim split that second best heading to the finals behind Jack Mainville of Nease, who pumped out a 21.33.
In the finals, with both swimmers side by side, Mainville held off Lopez's charge with a scintillating 20.92 split to Lopez's 21.51 improvement. Third place went to Bolles' Tristan Dorville in 21.55 with the top five finishers under 22 seconds.
In 2023, at the Class 3A championships, Mainville finished second in 20.56 to Tallahassee Chiles' Owen Ekk who won in 20.53.
In the 100 free, Mainville finished fifth with a 47.47 clocking with Andy Kravchenko of Bolles and teammate Liam Carrington both tying at 46.96 for the first place mark.
Lopez, with a 48.59 split in prelims, finished seventh in the final with another drop in time to 48.12.
Ekk, just a sophomore, was the 100 free Class 3A champion last year in 45.29 as a freshman to beat Mainville's runner-up time of 45.38. Lopez split a 47.17 for 10th in the 100-free final.
Lopez also competed in the 100 breaststroke finishing 16th in 1:01.36 at the Class 3A meet in 2023.
For Oakleaf, senior Peyton Loving scored 13 team points with a 10th in the 50 free in 25.59 and an eighth in the 1009 breaststroke in 1:09.43 plus two relay ninth place finishes for the Knights; the 200 medley relay with Brylee Wood, Lexi Huxohl and Anna Bredeson, and the 200 free relay with the same quartet. Wood finished 15th in the 100 free and Christian Santos was 13th in the 100 back for the boy's team.
Orange Park's boys got points from Dakota Blake with an 11th place in the 100 back in 58.67 with Luke Bronson finishing 15th in the 500 free in 5:17.62.
Bolles won both the boys and girls team titles with Nease second in the boys and Ponte Vedra second for the girls.