Osceola girls also favorites in OBC

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Will anyone challenge the Harmony boys, who have dominated the Orange Belt Conference swim meet the past five seasons?

Given the returning talent the Horns have on hand, it will be difficult.

Osceola’s girls snapped Harmony’s five-year OBC reign last year and look capable of repeating.

Harmony and Osceola have a dual meet Sept. 27 at the Osceola County YMCA.

The conference meet is Oct. 19 at the Makinson Aquatic Center in Kissimmee. Celebration may be a darkhorse.

The county programs will remain in the same districts this year, but realignment brought in some new foes. Osceola and Gateway remain in 3A-3, one of the most challenging in the state. St. Cloud, Harmony and Celebration stay in 2A-7, but Polk County powerhouse Winter Haven also is a member. Poinciana is in A-4. Liberty does not compete.

Harmony

The Longhorns have won three of the past four district championships and were well-represented at the state meet last year with 11 swimmers. They finished second in the region.

Here’s scary news for their competition:

“Our boys team looks very strong, possibly one of the the best we have ever coached,” Coach Terry Brown said. “We have high expectations with many returning swimmers and divers.”

Returning are state qualifiers Brandon Graber, Brice Howard, Justin Kennedy, Larry McVicker, Christian Smith,  Mitchell Mungall, John Roberts, Luke Roberts, Jesse Tetreault and Sam Steele.

Brown said the team wants to win the OBC title again, but its focus will be on the district, regional and state meets.

“We hope to win another district championship, making it our fourth district title in the last five years and our fifth overall,” Brown said. “We think we will be very competitive in our new new district. Our goal is to advance more swimmers and divers into regionals and onto state.”

Girls coach Lori O’Rourke said a mix of veterans and newcomers will try to bring the conference title back to Harmony.

“Over half of the girls squad are first-year swimmers and divers,” she said. “The girls are working hard to regain prominence in the OBC race.”

Returning are Katy Davis, Lindsey Saute, Olivia Missigman, Alex Latta and Kendall Knight.

“Our hopes in the state series competition are to advance more girls onto regions and state. We are looking forward to a great year,” O’Rourke said.

Osceola

The Lady Kowboys are prepared to defend their conference championship, Coach Krystle Singleton said.

“Winning OBCs has spurred the girls on the team to work pretty hard,” Singleton said.

Standouts Sarah Lambert, Kendall Castillow and Jordan Copeland return for Osceola.

Holly O’Donnell suffered a serious leg injury but may rejoin the team late in the season, Singleton said.

Singleton also will coach the boys this season, and she sees potential with Paul Gursky, Joseph Adames, Michael Pierson and Adam Lentz leading the way.

Steve Lacey joins the coaching staff and former Gateway High standout Shannon Magnuson returns for her second season.

“These two are bringing amazing things to the table and it really is exciting to be on the pool deck with them every day,” Singleton said.

The path to the state meet remains difficult with 3A District 3 powerhouses Olympia and Dr. Phillips in the way.

“It hasn’t gotten any easier and may, in fact, even be more difficult now,” Singleton said. “We will, however, continue to push through and work to obtain our goal of a top five district finish, and multiple regional qualifiers.”

St. Cloud

Coach Lou Abbott said a young and talented team will challenge for the girls conference championship this season.

Returning are seniors Samantha Deason and Julie Holstrum, along with juniors Destinee Best, Ashley Owens, Allison Harper, Lyndsie Watkins, Abby Schneider and Tiffany Baker.

The sophomores include Rya Chabot, Allison Diaz and Tanisha Hernandez. Freshmen Marissa Leaton and Katie Heath also will compete for the Lady Bulldogs.

The divers include sophomores Madison Clayton and Daniela Rincon.

Coach T.J. Walters leads the boys team, which features Chris Brown, Lance Kime and Matt Sullivan.

Diver Giancarlo Diaz also returns.

“We are working with a very young team this year and looking forward to seeing how they develop,” Walters, a former Bulldog standout, said.

Gateway

Panther Coach Vonnie Kochensparger led the Lady Panthers to a third-place finish at the OBC meet last season, falling just 20.5 points shy of first place with a balanced roster.

Although Alex Martinez, the county’s swimmer of the year, graduated, Gateway should be solid again with returning conference champions senior Melissa Morgan (freestyle) and sophomore Suanny Zamora (backstroke, freestyle).

“We have a small team this year, but all the kids are hard working and dedicated,” Kochensparger said.

Also returning to the team are seniors Nicole Carvalho and Christina Mazzotta (backstroke, freestyle) and juniors Alexandra Klar (freestyle, breaststroke) and Julie Ocana.

Back for the boys team are seniors Cesar Abuchar (freestyle), Aaron Gomez, Braden Robinson (freestyle) and Justin Tirado (butterfly, breaststroke, individual medley). The returning juniors are  Ryan Grovier and Santos Nunez. Sophomores are Robert Billingslea (individual medley) Stephen Gutierrez (individual medley) and Noah Hendricks (freestyle).

Kochensparger said freshmen Nathan Colonna, Tate Fox, Josh Longfield and Willy Weiss have the ability to contribute to the team’s success.

“They have a great work ethic and are working hard to make themselves better every day,” the coach said.

The Panthers boys and girls defeated Poinciana Tuesday as the girls medley and 400 relay teams of Zamora, Klar, Morgan and Mazzotta won. Zamora, Mazzotta, Morgan and Klar all won two individual events.

For the boys, Colonna, Tirado, Robinson and Abuchar teamed to win the medley relay. Abuchar, Weiss, Longfield and Colonna won the 200 free relay and Robinson, Weiss, Longfield and Tirado won the 400 free relay.

Tirado won the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke. Robinson, Colonna, Abuchar and Longfield all won individual events.

Tirado and Gutierrez each won two individual events in a 139-134 win over Celebration Thursday.

Poinciana

Coach Hugo Cuenca begins his second season with the Eagles and said the team is making strides to establish a solid program. Cuenca said his team members have varied interests.

For the boys, seniors Ryan Irwin, Michael Martinez, Daniel Carter and Alex Chalas are competing with underclassmen Andre Thompson and Kristopher Castillo.

The girls include Kayla Bruns, Rosalina Fernandez, Stephanie Soto and Erika Parker.

Celebration

Coach Kelly George takes over the Storm swim teams.

Celebration was impressive in its dual meet Thursday against Gateway, winning the girls meet, 127-98. The boys lost by only five points.

The boys roster has seniors Jeremy Bona, Sebastian Catano, Jonathan Perez-Esteves and Michael Petriella. The juniors are Luis Ballen, Shane Gilsenan, Andrews Maduro, Travis Richards, Cody Rubin, Jay Summerville and Dominic Williamson.

Ahamad Alladeen, Luis Aviles, Zachary Britt, Jackson Brunner, Julian Collazo, William Marcantel and Jacob Meury are sophomores.

The girls roster includes seniors Brenda Astudillo, Jessica Harter and Jeancy Rossy along with juniors Sumaya Lammers and Flynn Larson.

The sophomores are Alexandra Cudia, Christina Dial, Julianne Hickey, Sarah Masten, Rebecca McCue-Cote and Kaitlyn McDermott. Valentina Carreno-Aguilera, Carmen Santini, Rachel Slater and Hannah Swanson are freshmen.