By Sharon Robb
July 28, 2014—The Florida Gold Coast will be well-represented with talented swimmers when the Southern Zone Age Group Championships get under way Tuesday in San Antonio, Texas.
South Florida Aquatic Club has five swimmers on the team. They are Vanessa Mesa, Leonardo Mateus, Rafael Rodriguez, Delanie Perez and Ervin Marin.
Mateus will compete in six 11-12 events: 400-meter freestyle (4:36.65), 200-meter freestyle (2:14.56), 50-meter backstroke (34.35), 100-meter backstroke (1:10.35), 100-meter freestyle (1:03.61) and 200-meter individual medley (2:29.94).
Perez and Marin will each swim five events.
Perez will swim the 200-meter breaststroke, 400-meter individual medley, 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter individual medley and 200-meter butterfly.
Marin will compete in the 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter individual medley and 50-meter freestyle:
The remainder of the FGC team:
11-12 Girls: Gabriella Beltrano, Delaney Biro, Nicole Gomez, Jocelyn Ruiz, Andrea Santander, Jennifer Secrest and Stephanie Suarez.
11-12 Boys: Joshua Balbi, Michael Fernandez, Santiago Gomez, Bryan Rivero, Aaron Rodriguez, Andres Wong.
13-14 Girls: Marissa Brannan, Emily Cordovi, Mary Smutny, Haley Jerew, Victoria Miyamato, Melannie Vargas, Eriana Temperino.
13-14 Boys: Adrian Aguilar, Maximilian Asnis, Kyle Talton, Alberto Gomez, Diego Mateus, Bryan Quintero, Fernando Rodriguez.
15-16 Girls: Cloe Bedard-Khalid, Elizabeth Zubero, Whitaker Johnston, Sara Lacusky, Arianna Noya, Kaleigh Newcomb, Alexa Rivera, Rose Smiddy.
15-16 Boys: Alexander Arrieta, Miguel Basalo, Cody Cline, Adrian Moya, Andreas Rintel, Jonathan Farah, Luke Smutny, Sebastian Vargas.
Eight FGC coaches are accompanying the team.
Julie Smiddy is head coach and Greg Stallwort will serve as her assistant.
The age group coaches are Richard Garza (11-12 girls), Marcelo Gatti (11-12 boys), Erin Sayre (13-14 girls), Norman Abril (13-14 boys), Cathy Silvera (15-16 girls) and John Shipman (15-16 boys).
On Monday after arriving, FGC swimmers seemed to be excited about the local store offering 20 different types of jerky, including Angus and spicy turkey. They posted a photo of the display case on the FGC Zone Team Facebook page.
SOUTHERN ZONE SENIOR LC CHAMPIONSHIPS
SOFLO will have six swimmers competing in the Southern Zone Senior Long Course Championships that also get underway Tuesday at Florida Gulf Coast Aquatic Center.
Jordan Colon, 17, Esteban Diaz-Velasco, 15, Matthew Gonzalez, 19, Marcella Marinheiro, 19, Kevin Porto, 14, and Ronald Santos, 18, will represent SOFLO.
Colon, coming off a training session in Corby, England with the Jamaican national team, will compete in six events: 200-meter breaststroke (2:32.39), 50-meter breaststroke (33.19), 200-meter freestyle (2:09.16), 400-meter freestyle (4:33.22), 100-meter breaststroke (1:09.68) and 200-meter individual medley.
Diaz-Velasco will compete in the 200-meter backstroke (2:18.14), 50-meter backstroke (30.01), 200-meter freestyle (2:09.11), 50-meter butterfly (30.47), 100-meter backstroke (1:05.45) and 50-meter freestyle (23.64).
Gonzalez is entered in three events, 200-meter butterfly (2:00.23), 200-meter freestyle (2:06.35) and 50-meter butterfly (28.21).
Marinheiro, a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast, will compete in her home pool. She will swim the 100-meter freestyle (1:01.43), 200-meter backstroke (2:28.91), 50-meter backstroke (31.79), 50-meter butterfly (29.61), 100-meter backstroke (1:07.92) and 100-meter butterfly (1:08.85).
Porto and Santos are competing in the 800-meter freestyle. Porto is seeded at 9:07.15 and Santos seeded at 8:50.30.
Prelims are 9 a.m. and finals are 5 p.m. The meet ends on Saturday.
Sharon Robb can be reached at sha11cats@aol.com
Share this:
South Florida Aquatic Club's Blog 