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Sports

Summer Swim Season Begins For Hazelwood Sharks

Hazelwood team takes fourth at Florissant Relays, but wins all four girls 13-14 year-old events.

FLORISSANT – The North County Municipal Swim League got its 2011 summer season underway Saturday morning, with the season-opening Florissant Relays at Bangert Pool in Florissant.

The defending conference champion Florissant Fish served as the host team for the 40-event competition, which also featured teams from Bellefontaine, Ferguson, and Hazelwood.

The Hazelwood team, known as the Hazelwood Sharks, took fourth place in the event, just behind third-place finisher Bellefontaine, but well behind event winner Ferguson and second-place finisher Florissant.

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“I’m not really disappointed with how we did,” Hazelwood Sharks head coach Todd Ankenbrand said. “We’re missing about half our team today. We’ve got about 145 (swimmers) on our team, and with vacations, and SATs, and everything else that’s going on, about half the team is not here today.”

Not having all its best swimmers available certainly seemed to hamper the Sharks’ efforts. But it also seemed to open the opportunity for many younger swimmers to participate in events they don’t usually get to compete in.

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“Our biggest thing is to go out and get better each week, and get the kids into as many events as possible,” Ankenbrand said.

The Florissant Relays certainly presented an opportunity for that, as the more than 400 swimmers from all over North County, competed against one another in boys and girls races, ranging from freestyle and backstroke relays to 200- and 400-meter medley races for age groups from 8-18 year olds.

“Our kids really did the best they could,” Ankenbrand said. “I’m not disappointed at all. They swam hard, and it was fun.”

Of the 40 events, Hazelwood won five of them, and took second in four others.

The one spot where the Sharks really dominated the other teams was in the 13-14 year old girls competitions.

Hazelwood won all four relays at the level, which included the 200-meter medley, the 200-meter freestyle, the 200-meter backstroke, and the 200-meter breastroke.

Those victories included one of the most dramatic wins of the day for Hazelwood, or any of the teams for that matter.

In the 200-meter freestyle, Hazelwood led after the first lap, but fell to third by the time the anchor leg came around, which meant the Sharks were behind both the Ferguson and Florissant teams with only time enough for one lap down and one lap back to determine a winner.

But that’s when event standout, Jessie Nichols, an eighth-grader-to-be at Hazelwood West Middle School, who was part of all four 13-14 year old winning teams, put on an astonishing performance.

She caught and passed Ferguson’s Kobie Keegan, who was in second place, before Keegan could even reach the halfway point.

Then, with members of both teams screaming for the racers to deliver their best, Nichols was able to nip Florissant’s Shyanne Fisher at the wire for an incredible Hazelwood win.

“(Jessie’s) an incredible swimmer, that whole family really,” Ankenbrand said. “She just shows a lot of fight, and a lot of courage and motivation to win. They’re really motivated to go out and break those conference records this year.”

Hazelwood’s other event win came in the 8 year-old girls 100-meter freestyle, while the second-place finishes came in 9-10 year-old girls 100-meter medley; the 11-12 year-old girls 200-meter freestyle; and the 15-18 year-old boys medley and breastroke races.

“I just thought we did really well,” Ankenbrand said. “Everybody swam hard, and did the best they could. You really can’t ask for more than that.”

The Hazelwood Sharks will have their first team meet this Tuesday, June 14, when they’ll take on the Ferguson team at the January-Wabash Pool in Ferguson.

That meet is set to start at 6 p.m.

Hazelwood’s first home meet will also be this week, on Thursday, June 16, when the Sharks will host the Bellefontaine team at the White Birch Bay Competition Pool, affectionately called “The Shark Tank” at 5:30 p.m.

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