Hazelwood Sharks Triumphant In North County Swim Meet

The Hazelwood Sharks were impressively sharp against the Dellwood Dolphins Thursday, in a North County Municipal Swim League event at the at . The team finally caught a break with the weather, which allowed them to get back in a regular routine for the first time in weeks.

A large percentage of of the boys and girls varsity swim teams comprise the Sharks. The team won 44 of 66 total events against Dellwood, and the meet proved to be a lopsided 596-304 team meet victory for Hazelwood.

“(It was) a great meet,” Sharks head coach Todd Ankenbrand said. “It’s one of our last meets, and we wanted to see how we could do with putting people in different events again. I thought we did really well.”

Ankenbrand was especially happy with Hazelwood’s relay teams, which took first in 14 of 17 races, including all of the 13-14-year-old girls, 15-18-year-old boys and girls, and 10-and-under boys events.

In fact, the only Hazelwood relay team that didn’t win at least one of its races was the 9-10-year-old girls team, which took second in both events.

“No complaints,” Ankenbrand said. “We’re happy with the relays. We’re happy with everybody really.”

The victory lifted Hazelwood’s season record to 4-3, with one regular meet left before the conference championships, which begin July 23.

Hazelwood has a re-scheduled date with the conference-leading Florissant Fish, set for Monday at Bangert Pool in Florissant.

The teams were supposed to square off on July 7, but a severe thunderstorm that evening forced a postponement, and was a major factor in throwing off Hazelwood’s schedule for a time.

But the Sharks looked back on their game Thursday night, which included a brilliant run of 19 wins in the first 20 events to start the evening.

Among the early winners were Garrett Baldes (10-and-under boys), Spencer Campbell (11-12-year-old boys), Bria Luem (11-12-year-old girls), Matt Geiser (15-18-year-old boys), and Julia Nichols (15-18-year-old girls). Each of the aforementioned were part of their age group’s winning freestyle relay team, and also took first in the individual medley events.

Jessica Schreck (10-and-under girls), and Juliana Geiser (13-14-year-old girls) also won the individual medley in their group.

In the 6-and-under individual freestyle, Gavin Baldes continued his summer-long win streak in the boys’ race, while Lyla Campbell won the girls event.

Campbell also gave one of the top performance’s of the night in the individual backstroke, where she set a new team record in the 6-and-under category. Her time in that was 30.81 seconds.

“This is her first year on the team, and we’re real proud of her,” Ankenbrand said. “She’s great. Did a great job.”

The biggest individual winner of the night though, was boys 13-14-year-old swimmer William Jackson, who took home three first-place ribbons after winning the freestyle, backstroke and breastroke races.

Of the high school aged swimmers, Peter Hancock and Samantha Zaiz were both apart of three winning races. Both were members of the Sharks’ winning 15-18-year-old boys and girls relay teams, and both also won the individual backstroke races in their age range.

Hazelwood’s final regular season meet at Florissant is slated for a 6 p.m. start, as is the conference championship finals, which are scheduled for  July 26. Florissant’s Bangert Pool will serve as the host.