Lady Mustang swimmers tie for district title

The Lakewood Ranch High girls swim team overcame a 51-point deficit to capture a share of the district title at the Class 2A-District 9 Swimming and Diving Meet Oct. 30 at the Northshore Pool in St. Petersburg.

The Lady Mustangs finished with 416 points to tie Seminole Osceola for first place. The Lakewood boys team finished with 374 points to finish as the district runner-up behind Osceola (474 points).

Lakewood posted 11 first-place finishes and set five new school records. Those setting new school records for Lakewood include: Will Kazokas, Phil Czupryna, Ryan Stasiowski and James Cascone in the boys 200-yard medley relay (1:56.57); Shannon McCarthy, Raegan Sauer, Emily Wray and Rebekah Baker in the 200 freestyle relay (1:43.97); Ashley Reid in the girls 100 backstroke (1:00.81); Kazokas in the boys 100 backstroke (55.50); and Razan Waliagha in 1-meter diving (243.00).

Lakewood will now advance to the Class 2A-Region 3 Swimming and Diving Meet Nov. 4-5. Joining those who set new school records will be: Danielle Valley, Gillian Vogel, Rachel Woods, Ariel Basden, Maya McCarthy, Sydney Panzarino, Eric Erlenmeyer, Kevin Berkenbusch, Jon Chaires, Alec Bacon, Tommy Bevelock and Richard Wheeler.