ORLANDO — There is an unspoken rule in sports that a true competitor should want to win everything.
Alexandria Wittman, a junior at Osceola, looks at it differently.
It was not a medal she was chasing, or rather not the gold-plated hardware, but instead a sense of goals achieved, potential consummated.
She did that in Thursday’s Class 2A state meet, finishing sixth in the 500 free in 5 minutes, 2.87 seconds and seventh in the 200 free in 1:53.18. Wittman also teamed with Nicole Koda, Christina Tournant and Savannah Sawyer to finish fifth in the 200 medley relay (1:52.27).
Wittman swam personal bests in both individual events and had an All-American consideration time in the 500 free in the preliminaries. Her time fell a few seconds off in both events in the finals.
“I would have liked to have swam faster in the finals,” Wittman said. “But overall, I accomplished what I wanted.”
Lakewood’s Rebecca Halfast was the only other county girl to place, finishing eighth in the 200 free (1:55.27).
Academy of the Holy Names’ 200 free relay team of Olivia Kirkpatrick, Konner Brewer, Tori Litschgi and Clare Fleming all had the fastest splits of their careers. They finished the race in a personal-best 1 minute, 37.50 seconds, improving upon their previous best by 1.6 seconds from last year’s state meet.
On the final lap, Fleming was out-touched at the wall by Macey Arnold. Martin County won in 1:37.48, preventing the Jaguars from winning the event for the third straight season.
“The girls didn’t like losing that race,” AHN coach Bill Shaffer said. “But if we’re going to get beat, you want it to be like that. Every one of those girls swam the fastest they’ve ever swam before. It was just a really fast race.”
The four girls came back to place fourth in the 400 free relay in a school-record 3:36.82.
“We were a little surprised that we lost the 200 free relay,” Brewer said. “We wondered if we took one less breath if that would have made a difference. We were obviously disappointed with the loss, but we all swam fast. We all know we’ll work really hard to get back on top.”
On the boys side, Osceola’s Calvin Bryant chances of doing well in the final of the 500 free appeared to be capsized by stress and self-doubt.
Bryant, who has scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, felt his back tighten in the preliminaries. But he found the wherewithal to finish fifth in the final in 4:32.80.
“I’m real happy with fifth,” Bryant said. “My back was sore early on. But it got better after the first 100 yards in the final and I just went for it after that.”
At YMCA Aquatic Center, Orlando
Girls
Teams: 1. Chiles 304.5, 2. Suncoast 161, 3. Martin County 151, 4. Holy Names 142.5, 5. Gulf Coast 140, 6. Ponte Vedra 88, 7. Washington 87, 8. Osceola 82, 28. Lakewood 24, 45. Dunedin 3
Individuals: Diving: 1 Tillo (Sta) 411.65, 14 Emery (Dun) 315.40, 15 Lamanna (Osc) 307.50; 200 medley relay: 1 Chiles 1:46.96 (Williams, Lombardi, Yambor-Maul, Barnard), 5 Osceola 1:52.27 (Wittman, Koda, Tournant, Sawyer); 200 free: 1 Williams (Chi) 1:47.54, 7 Wittman (Osc) 1:53.18, 8 Halfast (Lkwd) 1:55.27; 200 IM: 1 Burns (Col) 2:00.82, 15 Koda (Osc) 2:15.17; 50 free: 1 Bindi (GB) 23.39; 100 fly: 1 Yambor-Maul (Chi) 55.21, Dymarek (Lkwd) 1:00.03, 16 Tournant (Osc) 1:01.04; 100 free: 1 Bindi (GB) 50.81; 500 free: 1 Valley (LR) 4:40.97, 7 Wittman (Osc) 5:02.87; 200 free relay: 1 Martin County 1:37.48 (Burdge, Murray, Lacusky, Arnold); 100 back: 1 Haan (GC) 54.43, 13 Halfast (Lkwd) 59.29; 100 breast: 1 Haila (Cre) 1:02.95, 11 Dymarek (Lkwd) 1:08.06, 14 Koda (Osc) 1:09.47; 400 free relay: 1 Chiles 3:29.71 (Williams, Yambor-Maul, Lombardi, Barnard), 8 Osceola 3:45.82 (Nesto, Tournant, Koda, Wittman)
Boys
Teams: 1. Belen Jesuit 221, 2. Mosley 151, 3. Gainesville 145, 4. Barron Collier 113, 5. Fort Myers 102, 6. Lakewood Ranch 88, 7. Robinson 84, 8. Fort Lauderdale 82, 20. Lakewood 47, 33. Osceola 20
Individuals: Diving: 1 Jackson (Ruth) 447.55; 200 medley relay: 1 Mosley 1:36.05 (Whitehead, Duderstadt, Ratliff, Pridgen), 12 Lakewood 1:42.23 (Long, Harasz, Kane, McCrosky); 200 free: 1 Ballestas (Bel) 1:38.10, 9 Harasz (Lkwd) 1:42.84, 11 Bryant (Osc) 1:44.00; 200 IM: 1 Duderstadt (Mos) 1:50.01; 50 free: 1 Olmsted (Eas) 20.73; 100 fly: 1 McCaffrey (Mit) 48.86; 100 free: 1 Dressel (CHS) 44.10, 13 Long (Lkwd) 48.77; 500 free: 1 Samuelson (FM) 4:25.33, 5 Bryant (Osc) 4:32.80; 200 free relay: 1 Belen Jesuit 1:27.24 (Ballestas, Guso, Banciela, Avallone), 9 Lakewood 1:30.75 (Harasz, Kane, McCrosky, Long); 100 back: 1 Dressel (CHS) 50.08, 11 Harasz (Lkwd) 54.06; 100 breast: 1 Duderstadt (Mos) 55.08; 400 free relay: 1 Belen Jesuit 3:09.69 (PerezCosta, Alvarez, Guso, Ballestas)