Buchholz High repeats as Gainesville city swim meet champion, winning both team titles
Second-year Buchholz swim coach John Hulvey knew the task of sweeping both team titles was going to be a bit more challenging this year.
But he made it clear to his teams this past week that he is super competitive and wanted to win both again. Saturday, his boys and girls teams claimed both titles at the Rob Ramirez City Swim meet at Northeast Pool for the second time in a row.
“I joked with the team early in the week,“ said Hulvey. “I showed them a little Mario Kart picture with a 5-year-old. I told them I don't like losing, you know. I'm super competitive. I like to win no matter what level we are, but winning was good fun here. It was hard-nosed fighting, and I think everybody really tried to throw it down.“
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Diving helps Bobcats take girls title
On the girls side, Buchholz got the edge in the 1 meter diving event as Kayla Scheel, Lakshmi Garofalo and Lindsey Meyers collected 48 points before the swimming events started.
“Obviously. I mean, diving was big for us,” said Hulvey, whose girls team edged P.K. Yonge 474-455 for the win. “We had three divers score some really nice points for us. We put a lot of thought into where we were going to get some points, so a couple of people swam some events that weren't necessarily in their comfort zone.”
P.K. Yonge countered with six individual wins and three relay victories (which were worth double the points), but the Bobcats' depth was too much to overcome. The Blue Wave's Lillie Nesty and Gwen Shahboz were top scorers of the meet earning two individual wins apiece and swimming legs on two of the three relay wins. Eastside senior Hannah Ahn also earned double wins in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly.
“I know PK was really trying to come away with the win this year so it's nice for our girls to kind of hold them off and keep that rivalry going,” said Hulvey.
Gainesville boys post individual and relay wins
On the boys’ side, Buchholz used the same strategy. The Bobcats' depth was too much for GHS as they won 436-374.
“We got enough of those top eight finishes and those top 16 finishes to kind of finish out the score,” Hulvey said of his boys’ team getting points from many of his swimmers. “It was definitely close. I checked the score a couple times on that one.”
The Bobcats earned one win from Landen Culleton in the 500-yard freestyle as the ‘Canes countered with four individual wins and two relays courtesy of sophomore Will Sammy and senior Michael Mullen. P.K .Yonge senior Joseph Pyon also was a double winner claiming wins in the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.
Bobcat senior and captain Luke Pinter summed up the team’s effort Saturday.
“We were just thinking we gotta get every single member of our team going because that's what we needed to win,” he said. “We needed everybody working together and really putting their all into this. ... We just had to really get the team spirit up. That's what really got us all going and really made us win here.”
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Buchholz, P.K. Yonge, Gainesville High post wins in city swimming meet
