Ricky Quintana
The Rob Ramirez City Swim Meet will be hosted at the Dwight H. Hunter Northeast Pool this Saturday.
Warmups begin at 12 p.m. with swimming events set to start at 1 p.m. Swimmers from area high schools Buchholz, Eastside, Gainesville, Oak Hall, P.K. Yonge, St. Francis Catholic Academy, and Union County will face off in 12 events. The pool is located at 1100 NE 14th Street in Gainesville.
Buchholz is the defending team champion in both the boys and girls divisions.
In the boys team competition, GHS is favored in six of the 12 events.
Hurricanes sophomore Will Sammy is favored in two events —the 100-yard freestyle and the 100 backstroke — and teammate and Bolles transfer Michael Mullen is favored in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke. Those two will also swim on relays which are worth double the points.
P.K. Yonge’s Joseph Pyon is also favored to win two events —the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.
Landen Culleton is the lone Bobcat favored when he swims in the 500 freestyle, but the Buchholz boys team will counter with their overall depth. The top 16 places score so the Bobcats can offset any GHS wins from their place scorers.
In the girls team competition, P.K. Yonge faces the same challenge as the Bobcats. They are favored in seven events and are led by two double-win favorites — junior Lillie Nesty in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke and Tulane commit Gwen Shahboz in the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke. The two will also swim in the relays, which P.K. Yong is favored to win.
This week, Nesty was one of 48 of the fastest US women’s swimmers to be selected to attend USA Swimming’s National Select Camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Brown commit Hannah Ahn is also favored in two events —the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.
Buchholz can earn a lead before the swimming events begin. They have several divers who could score a lot of points and the Blue Wave have none. GHS has many divers as well, so they may be able to land some valuable points before the swimming finals. The ‘Canes have only one favorite to win an event this year and that’s Ava Fuller in the 500 freestyle.