GAINESVILLE - With a 1-2-3 finish in the 50-yard freestyle; Katelyn Moore, Summer Vanwagenen and Brooke Reynolds, highlighting the district 2-3A swimming and diving championships in Gainesville, the Fleming Island High girls team used a strength in numbers strategy to take second place to Fletcher by just 51 points for the coveted team title.

"We have a unique situation where we have 3-5 girls that can swim in the same event and finish with top five finishes for a strategy of maximum points per event," said Fleming Island coach Matthew Fetzner. "We can make a dent in region and state with that and maybe get some solid team points in relays."

For the boys, Orange Park High coach Susan Johnson maximizes her points with stuffing the relays with a plethora of multi-talented athletes and the strategy got her a second-place finish in the boys team chase with second to Fletcher in the 200 free relay and the 200 medley relay.

"We had a lot of personal best times with a bunch of our guys getting region berths; Princeton Williams in the 100 breast and 200 individual medley, Ashton Juarez in the 100 fly, Dakota Blake in the 100 back and all three relays," Johnson said. "We ran some good times, but we got more in the tank." 

Regions were set for Nov. 5 at the Morcom Aquatic Center in Tallahassee starting at 10:30 a.m.

For the scoring, in the boys, Fletcher dominated with a 617 point total in the boys race with Orange Park edging Fleming Island 334 for second to 303. Clay finished fifth, Ridgeview sixth and Middleburg seventh
For the girls, Fletcher pulled ahead of Fleming Island with 550 to 499 with Gainesville third at 279. Clay finished fifth, Orange Park sixth, Middleburg seventh and Ridgeview eighth. 

After winning the 200 medley relay in a tussle with Clay and Fletcher; with Klara Shoesmith, Vanwagenen, Audrey Hall and Reynolds on the blocks, Fleming Island dominated from there with Elizabeth Loehr and Kinsey Yarbrough; first and third in 200 free; Caroline Kuhl and Shoesmith in the 200 IM going one, two with Clay's Kylie Elrod third. 

In the superfast 50 free, Moore, Vanwagenen and Reynolds finished 1-2-3 with splits of 25.44, 25.53 and 25.64 with Clay's Taylor Hildum in the sub-26 second group at fourth in 25.84. 

The 100 buttefly was a 1-3 finish for Yarbrough and Hall, just two seconds gap; in the 100 free Moore and Kuhl for 2-3 behind Gainesville's Kara Walters, all within one second; in the 500 free; Loehr and Shoesmith with Keira Fetzner fifth with Loehr, a state qualifier last year, beating Shoesmith by just five seconds. 

In the 100 breast, Elrod got some get back on Vanwagenen with a late 25-yard surge to win 1:08.19 to 1:09.97.

Fleming Island's girls won all three relays.
In the boys events, top times came from Fleming Island's William Shoesmith and Clay's Noah Stotler in dominating fashion. Shoesmith won the 200 IM (1:54.39) by more than 13 seconds over a tough early challenge from Ridgeview sophomore Jackson Strickland, then won the 500 free in 3:38.37 by 26 seconds.
Stotler won the 200 free in 1:39.38 to win by 11 seconds with his best time of the season despite flu symptoms, then won the 100 butterfly in 50.67 with David Murphy of Ridgeview in third at 54.62 edging Orange Park's Ashton Juarez' 54.87. Murphy also had a solid 100 free at 50.88 for fourth against three from Fletcher. 

In the second half of the meet; with breaststroke and backstroke the top final events, Orange Park got big team points with Dakota Blake in the back for third and Williams second in the 100 breast with Strickland third. 

 
In the final event, Fleming Island was third in the 400 free relay over Orange Park's fourth; 3:34.25 to 3:39.69.

Region 1-3A rankings (Top 24)

Girls
200 free: FIHS Loehr, 4th, FIHS Yarbrough 7th; FIHS Audrey Hall 22nd; 200IM-FIHS Kuhl 6th, FIHS Shoesmith 8th, CHS Elrod 9th; 50 free-FIHS Moore 10th, FIHS Vanwagenen 11th, FIHS Reynolds 13th, CHS Taylor Hildum 16th; 100 Fly-FIHS Yarbrough 11th, FIHS Hall 16th; 100 free-FIHS Moore 13th, FIHS Kuhl 17th, FIHS Reynolds 18th, CHS Hildum 23rd; 500 free-FIHS Loehr 3rd, FIHS Shoesmith 9th; 100 breast-CHS Elrod 2nd, FIHS Vanwagenen 6th;

Boys
200 free: CHS Stotler, 1st; FIHS Jake Hall, 16th; 200IM-FIHS Shoesmith 3rd, RHS Strickland 12th; OPHS Williams 24th; Diving-FIHS Rylan Mills 8th; 100 fly: CHS Stotler 3rd, RHS Murphy 9th, OPHS Juarez 11th, FIHS Hall 23rd; 100 free-RHS Murphy 18th; 500 free-FIHS Shoesmith 1st; 100 back-OPHS Blake 11th; 100 breast-OPHS Williams 16th, RHS Strickland 17th, CHS Ajax Sgro 23rd