TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Plant City, Durant swimmers finish careers at state meet

ADVERTISEMENT

DAREK SHARP

Published: November 28, 2009

PLANT CITY - Durant High's Erin Hofrichter and Plant City's Blair Butler finished off their prep swimming careers with appearances in the state meet recently in Orlando.

The seniors were joined by an underclassman, Durant junior Ed Bandi, in making it to the Aquatic Center in Orlando for the top event of the season.

Hofrichter had the best local showing with her ninth-place finishes in the 200-meter and 500-meter freestyle. She barely missed being the only Plant City area competitor to make the Championship Finals, reserved for the top eight performers from each of the preliminary rounds.

Still it was a great showing for Hofrichter, whose brother Jonathan has two more years left at Durant and made it to the regional meet this year.

The male standouts, Bandi and Butler, both made it to state in two events. The Class 2A meet, held Nov. 12 at the Central Florida Aquatic Center, featured Durant while Butler represented Plant City High in the 3A meet the following day.

Bandi was the only Raider or Cougar to give his team a district championship, winning the 100 breaststroke during the 2A-8 meet on Oct. 31. At the Nov. 6 regional event Bandi was fourth in both the breaststroke and the 200 freestyle, each time good enough to qualify for a trip to Orlando.

Butler was seeded ninth in the region headed into the 3A-2 meet in St. Petersburg (Nov. 7) but surpassed those projections with finishes of fifth and seventh, respectively, in the 200 and 500 freestyle races. At state Butler wound up 11th and 12th.

"He's worked his tail off, and is deservedly starting to get some recognition from his peers," Raiders boys head coach Gabriel Heidt said.

Specifically, Butler had a congratulations message dedicated to him put on the Plant City High School marquee after his regional performance.

His younger sister Brittany was the only Raider girls team member to qualify for regionals, in both the 200 and 500. The 200 freestyle relay team of Amanda Byars, Savannah Joyner, Kristen Bass and Butler was sixth at districts, just missing out on advancing by time.

Plant City's boys squad had several reach the regional meet including both Nikita Markov and Anthony Rodriguez in the breaststroke, and freshman Robbie Knox who squeezed into the 24th and final spot in the 100 backstroke.

Markov, Rodriguez, Butler and Bryars Byrd -- all seniors except Rodriguez -- also qualified as a relay unit in two events.

Durant sent a large contingent to the 2A-3 regional meet thanks to several relay teams making it in. For the boys the all-underclassmen 200 medley relay - Hofrichter, Clayton Todd, Vasily Robu and Freddie Lopez - performed best.

Individually besides Bandi and Hofricther, the other Cougar male to advance past the district stage was sophomore Charlie McBurney in both sprint events.

For the girls Rachel Holland made it in the backstroke and as part of the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay squads. Shelby Terihay, Sylvia Inocent and Erin Hofrichter made up the rest of the former unit, while the latter had the same four members save for Vicki Ewell being in Terihay's place.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT