Bound for a destination about two and a half hours southeast of Tampa, five Freedom High School swimmers drove down to Stuart, Florida for the FHSAA (Florida High School Athletic Association) State Championships. Being a prelims and finals meet- meaning that athletes must qualify in the morning session to swim at night for a chance at a medal- they headed down on Friday night to get bright and early the next morning.

In the morning, warmups started at 7:00 am, and the meet began at 9:00 am. There are “A” finals and consolation finals. “A” finals has places 1^st – 8^th and consolation finals has places 9^th – 16^th. There are also two alternates for each event, in the case that a swimmer doesn’t show up. These spots are for 17^th and 18^th place. Up first was the 200 freestyle, eight laps, and Zachary Kopel, 11, homeschooled, swam a 1:46.63, and placed 20^th. In the 200 Individual Medley, which is two laps of each stroke, Carly Joerin, 10, swam a 2:11.74, cutting a little bit of time off of her Regionals performance, and placing 18^th as the second alternate in finals. Michelle Morgan, 10, also swam the 200 I.M. and she went a 2:03.87, taking a little over three seconds off of her Regionals time and went into finals seeded 2^nd. Hannah LaBohn, 11, who attends Brooks DeBartolo High School, swam in the 50 and 100 freestyle, which is two and four laps, respectively. In her 50 freestyle, she went a personal best time at 24.86 and placed 14^th. In her 100 free, she swam just above her best in 54.25 and placed 13^th. Joerin and Morgan both swam in the 500 as well, which is 20 laps of freestyle. Joerin swam a 5:06.27, just over her Regionals time, and made consolation finals in 15^th place. Morgan swam a 4:51.21 and placed 2^nd going into finals. Kopel also raced in the 500 freestyle, swimming a time of 4:37.66, securing his spot in the A finals at 8^th place. To end off the morning session, the girl’s 400 freestyle relay started, with Joerin, LaBohn, Morgan, and Alexa Valdez-Valez, 10, each doing a 100 freestyle- four laps. Starting off was LaBohn with a time of :54.46, and second was Valdez-Valez, with a :55.51 for the 100. Going third was Joerin, at a :54.55, and Morgan finishing off at :50.65 for her leg of the relay, with the final time at a 3:35.17.

Warmups for finals began at 4:15 pm, and the racing started at 5:30 pm.  First up was Morgan in the 200 I.M. seeded 2^nd going into the race. She finished in 2^nd again, going a personal best by just over half a second, hitting the wall at 2:02.17. LaBohn was up next for both the 50 and 100 freestyles. In her 50, she swam in consolation finals, and finished just over her best, going a :25.09. In her 100 freestyle, she placed 13^th overall, hitting the touch pad at :54.72. Next was Joerin, swimming the 500 freetyle, just barely missing her prelims time, finishing in 15^th place with a 5:06.67. Morgan swam next in the 500, finishing just over a second from her best time, going a 4:47.38, and placing 2^nd overall. Kopel was up soon thereafter, also for the 500 freestyle, placing 6^th with a 4:38.74. Finishing off the night was the 400 freestyle relay, always the most fun event, that the ladies qualified for in prelims at 4^th place. They placed in 4^th again, with similar times to the morning, rounding off the relay with a 3:35.28. Freedom ended up coming home with a total of 7 medals: four 4^th places, two 2^nd places, and a 6^th place. The girls ended up in 19^th place overall out of 45 teams, with only four girls- a great way to end the season.