Advertisement

State swimming: Medals, but no team title for Plant girls

 
STUART - Plant sophomore Ella Bathurst gives a congratulatory high five to the winner moments after Bathurst finished as the runner-up in the 200 free Saturday night at the Class 4A state swim meet. Bathurst finished in 1:46.82, junst .14 behind the winner. Scott Purks, Special to the Times
STUART - Plant sophomore Ella Bathurst gives a congratulatory high five to the winner moments after Bathurst finished as the runner-up in the 200 free Saturday night at the Class 4A state swim meet. Bathurst finished in 1:46.82, junst .14 behind the winner. Scott Purks, Special to the Times
Published Nov. 10, 2018

STUART — The Plant girls swim team once again performed extremely well at state Saturday. The trouble is that Florida's Class 4A meet is a huge, unwieldy beast featuring some of the country's fastest times.

Nonetheless, Plant's girls came in with plenty of fight, starting Saturday night with a victory in the 200 medley relay with Reagan Flynn, Ella Bathurst, Jilian Schulte and Ella Marlow, winning in one minute, 42.92 seconds.

Bathurst, a sophomore, then followed with a second-place showing in the 200 free (1:46.82) and victory in the 100 breaststroke.

"I was thinking about the state record before we got here," said Bathurst, who won the breaststroke in a blazing 1:01.97, less than a second off the state mark. "Maybe next year I can come back and get it. Overall today, I would say I'm very happy. I think everybody is."

Around the Bathurst highlights, Plant shined in the 200 free relay with Isabella Haight, Marlow, Flynn and Caroline Rossi taking third in 1:36.56. In the 400 free relay, Schulte teamed with Marlow, Bathurst and Rossi to place third in 3:27.22.

Morgan Austrich and Flynn also posted a nice finishes in the 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke, respectively, both placing eighth.

Add it up, however, and it wasn't enough to claim the elusive state team title trophy, something no girls team from Hillsborough County has ever won since the state meet began in 1920.

As a team, Plant's girls, who took second at state the past two years, finished fourth with 182 points. Buchholz won the title for a third straight year with 250 points.

McGovern's mission

Newsome junior Garrett McGovern said he wanted to continue the family tradition of state swimming prowess. Mission accomplished, with emphasis.

Now all the Garrett brothers — including Wes (class of 2015) and Blake (class of 2018) — have state meet bragging rights, but none more so than Garrett. That's because Garrett became the first McGovern to grab a state title, taking the 200 IM in 1:50.30.

"I had a plan and stuck to it," he said. "I would say everything went really, really well."

McGovern followed his 200 IM victory with a sixth-place showing in the 500 free (4:33.93). He helped his 400 free relay to a fourth-place finish in 3:11.07 and the Wolves' 200 free relay to a seventh-place finish in 1:28.43.

Overall, Newsome's boys placed fifth as a team, the highest among Tampa Bay area schools with 127 points. Oviedo won the boys' title with 231.5.

Mulvihill makes mark

Steinbrenner sophomore Alexis Mulvihill placed second at state last year in the 50 free with a blazing time of 23.16, and this year she was even faster at 22.83 — yet still not fast enough.

Once again Talia Bates of Buchholz edged Mulvihill at the wall. Bates, however, is graduating in the spring, leaving an opening for Mulvihill to go for the gold the next two years.

"I hope to come back," Mulvihill said. "We will have to see how it goes with club swimming, but I do think I want to come back and compete for my high school."

Stay updated on Tampa Bay’s sports scene

Subscribe to our free Sports Today newsletter

We’ll send you news and analysis on the Bucs, Lightning, Rays and Florida’s college football teams every day.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

She came back one event later to place eighth in the 100 butterfly in 55.90. Bates, by the way, also ended up taking the fly victory in 52.82. After that, Mulvihill contributed to the Warriors' 200 free and 400 relays with Mabry Bishop, Justine Answeeney and Abigail Greene. The group took fifth in the 200 relay (1:36.78) and sixth in the 400 relay (3:32.91).

Notables

Durant junior Morgan Shinault placed seventh in the 200 IM in 2:05.81 and seventh in the 100 backstroke in 56.86. … Palm Harbor University's girls 200 medley relay was sixth in 1:49.41. … Palm Harbor University's boys 200 medley placed fifth in 1:37.78, and the Hurricanes' 400 relay was fifth in 3:12.07. … Steinbrenner's boys 200 medley relay placed sixth in 1:38.42. … Plant's boys 200 medley team took seventh in 1:38.45. … St. Petersburg's Lukas Cote placed fifth in the 200 free in 1:40.88 and took fourth in the 100 back in 51.44. … St. Petersburg's boys 200 free relay placed sixth in 1:27.27. … Newsome's Ryan Warmbier was seventh in the 200 free in 1:41.61 and fourth in the 100 free in 46.02. … Plant's Tommy Nagle placed eighth in the 200 IM in 1:55.67 and eighth in the 100 breaststroke in 58.86. … Countryside's Joey Burns placed eighth in the 50 free in 21.89 and seventh in the 100 free in 47.23. … Strawberry Crest's Robert Haywood was sixth in the 100 breaststroke in 58.45.