By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The FAST swim team competes in the Jefferson Area Swim League, as does the Lake Monticello Swim Team (LMST.) FAST is a smaller entity with about 60 swimmers. The team members are mostly from Fluvanna County, but a few members are from neighboring counties. FAST practices and holds home swim meets at the Fork Union Military Academy (FUMA) in the Estis Center. It is an excellent indoor venue. FAST pays a rental fee to use the pool. On July 10, the FAST team hosted the Louisa Gators. The meet’s final score was Louisa 544 and FAST 419. The scoring is as follows. In relay events, the winning team records 10 points and the second place team receives 5 points. In individual events, the scoring is 7 points for first, 5 for second, 4 for third and 3 for fourth.
FAST Coach Michael DiFazio said before the meet that his squad was strongest in the age 11-12 category and the results of the meet backed that up. In the 11-12 girls Individual medley race (IM), FAST took four of the top five finishes. Riley Eubanks was the winner with a time of 1:30.05 Madelyn Ford was next in 1:30.70. They were both about 10 seconds ahead of the fastest Gator – a serious margin in a swim race. In the boys’ 11-12 age 50 meter freestyle event, Christian Gray was the winner for FAST and in that event for the girls, Madelyn Ford was first for FAST, while Emily Requeno took second.
In the 11-12 breaststroke race Jacob Birckhead was second for FAST, while Schuyler Wingler was a winner for the FAST girls squad. In the 11-12 backstroke, Birckhead and Wingler reversed their positions. Birckhead won his race and Wingler took second. Birckhead won by over four seconds. In the final discipline of the night, the grueling butterfly, FAST swept the Gators in boys and girls races in the 11-12 age bracket. Gray and Birckhead were first and second, and Ford and Requeno were first and second. Gray and Ford both finished over ten seconds ahead of their opponents.
FAST turned in some excellent individual performances in other age groups as well, but the Gators seem to have more overall depth. Other individual winners for FAST included Levi Rensch in the age 13-14 IM, Abigail Ford in the 15-18 IM, Abby Caruso in the 13-14 freestyle, Jacob Thurston-Wells in the 15-18 freestyle, Reese Yowell in the 15-18 freestyle, Thurston-Wells in the 50 breaststroke, Leanna Collier in the 15-18 breaststroke, Grady McCoy in the 8 and under backstroke, Annabeth Thurston-Wells in the 8 and under backstroke, Mikey Logan in the 9-10 backstroke, Caruso in the 13-14 girls backstroke winning by 12 seconds, Jacob Thurston-Wells and Abigail Ford in the 15-18 backstroke, Logan in the 9-10 butterfly, Rensch in the 13-14 boys butterfly, Caruso in the 13-14 girls butterfly, and Yowell in the 15-18 girls butterfly.
In the relay races, the Gators piled up the points. The FAST team won only a few of the relays. The 11-12 girls won the freestyle relay with a team of Riley Eubanks, Emily Requeno, Catie Kenny and Madelyn Ford. The boys 13-14 relay team also won, with a team of Christian Gray, Jacob Birckhead, Riley Covert and Levi Rensch. The final win for the FAST team came in event 80 the last race of the night. The FAST 15-18 girls freestyle relay team of Leanna Collier, Lexi Collier, Maya Hernandez and Reese Yowell won by almost a minute.
