The Florida Age Group Championship (FLAGS) for short course season was this past weekend at Y of Central Florida on I-Drive. The 14-and-under Blue Dolfins swimmers made a strong showing, coming in 5th out of the 63 teams competing.
For Blue Dolfins Winter Park, many of our young swimmers qualified for FLAGS, which is one of the first major milestones in a rising swimmer’s career. We are extremely proud of the 2019 FLAGS Team which represented BDWP this season and look forward to having even more qualify next year.
And of those who qualified, a few had a really outstanding meet. 10-year-old JB Kodera won all of her events: 200 Free, 100 Free, 50 Backstroke, 100 Backstroke, 100 Butterfly, and 100 IM. She also won the coveted High Point Award for 10-year-old girls.
Sadie Jahn swam multiple events a did extremely well in all of her events including breaking a minute for the first time in the 100 Free and also swimming the 200 Fly for the first time.
For the older girls, several BDWP swimmers also did well. Claire Clark won the consolation finals of the 50 Breaststroke, while both Claire Goodowens in her breaststroke events and Carolina Villarini-De Leon in the backstrokes, swam fantastic in several event finals. Caroline Chasser had huge swims in all of her events, the 100 and 200 Back, 200 Fly, 200 IM and 400 IM. Sydnie Hart, coming off a broken arm and being pretty sick, rallied to show good form in multiple events including the IMs and breaststrokes. Her sister Mackinley Hart also qualified for the team but was sidelined for the weekend.
Erika Hirschmann also had an outstanding meet, placing third in the 50 Free, sixth in the 100 Free, fourth in the 100 Backstroke, and winning the consolation final of the 200 Free. Erika was also part of the the Blue Dolfins 13-14 Year Old 400 Free Relay that set a new state record.
We are so thankful to our coaches who help develop these young talents - great work! And congrats to all our swimmers— the future is bright and yours for the taking through hard work and dedication!