The next stop on the road to the Florida high school championships for the 29 GPAC swimmers was their respective regional championships. GPAC had tremendous success at these meets, with very noteworthy performances from all classes.

1A

In a class that includes most private schools, including the state and national champions Bolles School, our GPAC swimmers swam very well. Sophomore Heidi Schellin was the local standout, placing seventh in the 200-yd IM and fifth in the 100-yd breaststroke for Pensacola Catholic. Heidi dropped her times from the district meet in both events, narrowly missing the cutoff for the state meet in the breaststroke.

Abby Barr shaved over eight seconds from her 500-yd freestyle from districts to finish in the top 16 at the meet. She also finished in the top 16 in the 100-yd backstroke. Geza Maruschak also dropped his time in the 200-yd freestyle, finishing 15^th. Rebecca Holliman also represented GPAC at the 1A regional meet.

2A

The 2A regional championships proved to be a very exciting one, where Washington high school’s girls’ team won the title with dominating performances from GPAC swimmers. Starting the meet, the girl’s 200-yd medley relay of Brooke Ferrara, Jacquie Kinman, Sophia Diagne and Bri Mount set a new GPAC team record and set an All-American qualifying time of 1:46.04. This time has them seeded first at the state meet. Washington’s boys’ relay also took top honors, featuring Steffen Mount, Will Rosasco and Cameron Walton. They head into the state meet seeded second. Washington won all three relays on the girls’ side.

Individually, GPAC had many best times come out of the meet. Steffen Mount took second place in the 200-yd freestyle, dropping seconds from his personal best. He goes into the state finals seeded second. Nick Petruska shaved a whopping six seconds from his best 200 free time to place seventh. Bri Mount dropped a few tenths in her 50-yd freestyle to nab second place at the meet, and Brooke Ferrara grabbed third. Both girls advanced to the state meet. Cameron Walton, a junior, grabbed third place at the meet, and he will also advance to the state finals in the 50.

Freshman Sophia Diagne stepped up for Washington, winning the 100-yd butterfly in a personal best time of 58.23 seconds, seeding her second at the state meet. Peyton Parra dropped three seconds in her butterfly to advance to state, and Bianca Phillips (Gulf Breeze) dropped two, finishing just out of state contention. Junior Grant Bridges dropped three seconds in his 100-yd butterfly to grab fourth place at the meet.

Peyton Parra won the 500-yd freestyle for Washington, dropping over 10 seconds. Claren Anderson of Gulf Breeze high school took third in the race. Both girls will represent their school and GPAC at state. Nick Petruska dropped another five seconds from his 500 swim to get an invitation to state in his freshman year.

Brooke Ferrara, after placing second at district, came to regionals with a win on her mind. In a tremendous race, Ferrara dropped almost 2 seconds from her best 100 back time to become regional champion and set an All-American consideration time of 55.78 seconds. This time puts her as the top seed at the state meet is a new Junior National qualifying time and Senior National qualifying time! Grant Bridges grabbed fifth place at the meet in his 100 back and will make his debut at the state finals seeded 10^th in the event.

Senior Jacquie Kinman, took first in the 100-yd breaststroke for the Wildcats and will go on to the state meet as the top seed. Will Rosasco grabbed fourth in the event, dropping two seconds. He will also advance to the finals. Claren Anderson and Bianca Phillips will represent GPAC as members of the Gulf Breeze 200 and 400-yd freestyle relays that will swim at the state finals.

3A

Pace High School seniors Nate Thomas and Olivia Weekely continued their march to the state finals at the 3A regional championships. Olivia won the 100-yd butterfly for Pace High School to punch her ticket to the state meet, and she placed second in the 50-yd freestyle. Nate took top honors again in the 50-yd freestyle, remaining virtually undefeated in the event. He also won the 100-yd freestyle, grabbing the automatic qualifying to the state meet. Senior Alex Morris placed seventh in the 100-yd back stroke and helped Pace to top ten finishes in the 200-yd medley and 200 freestyle relays. Both of the relays and his individual backstroke swim were state meet qualifying.  Jillian Flowers also represented GPAC at the regional championships, swimming on the 200-yd medley relay as well as the 400 freestyle relay for Tate High School.

GPAC is slated to send 16 athletes to represent their schools at the high school state meets held in Stuart, FL.