THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608060151
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 98 lines
BETWEEN BOUTS of hard rain, the top competitors from the Virginia Beach Swim League squared off at their annual all-star competition Saturday at the Great Bridge Swim and Racquet Club.
Record times fell as frequently as raindrops in the outdoor pool, and 12-year-old Amanda J. Cole of Virginia Beach's formidable Carolanne Farm swim team led the deluge.
A short week after swimming to five individual and team records at the league's championship meet, Cole shattered three individual league records. They were records she had set at the championships.
Cole beat her old 12-and-under woman's 50-meter freestyle record of 29.90 seconds with a 29.53.
In the 100-meter individual medley she annihilated her old record of 1:13.93 by more than a second with a 1:12.90 swim. Her closest competition came from teammate Sarah Lutman, who was more than seven seconds behind.
Cole went head-to-head with the swimmer she calls her toughest competition, fellow 12-year-old Carolanne swimmer Morgan Gerek, in the 50-meter butterfly. Cole finished with a 32.46 to Gerek's 35.40. In the process, Cole beat her old record of 32.72.
``I swam well at divisionals,'' said Cole. ``But I like the competition (here) . . . It makes me swim faster and harder.''
Cole is perhaps the strongest link on a Carolanne team that went undefeated in its regular season meets. The 5-0 record improved on the 4-1 numbers from 1995.
Carolanne Farm also wrapped up its first divisional championship title of its 26 years in the league.
As several parents noted throughout the day, Carolanne has an easier time attracting swimmers because its team membership rules do not require a swimmer to be an actual member of the country club.
League president Art Verdin admitted that Carolanne is an easier club to join, but stopped short of calling their membership rules a recruiting tactic.
``They have people from a wider range of demographics,'' said Verdin. ``But the league frowns on recruiting. It isn't illegal to swim as long as recruits have a swim team membership.''
Cole said she has benefited from the solid swimming of her Carolanne teammates, especially Gerek, her ``friendly rival.''
Gerek took first in the girls' 12-and-under 50-meter backstroke with a 35.68, comfortably beating Stephanie Hall of Broad Bay Country Club in Virginia Beach. Hall, 11, posted a 37.54.
``I was happy to place in the top five,'' said Hall, one of the few swimmers to fare well against a Carolanne club that also dominated many of the relay events. And she saw no shame in finishing No. 2 to Gerek, who holds a Virginia Beach city record in the event.
The strong swimming Hall exhibited capped a comeback that has spanned the 1996 season. While skiing for Norfolk Academy in January, Hall broke her leg. She came back, swam in her sixth all-stars Saturday, and said she will continue to work on her times for next season.
One pool record was broken twice by junior swimmers.
In the 6-and-under girls 25-meter freestyle, Glenwood's Laura Byles and Great Bridge's Mary M. Milhalko broke the Great Bridge Swim and Racquet Club record of 22.83. Milhalko swam a 22.43, but Byles topped it in the next heat with a 21.76.
Milhalko said she was happy with her short-lived record in her favorite swim. She added, ``I like freestyle because it's easier than backstroke. You can get all messed up (doing the backstroke), like if you run into the lane line.''
On the boys' side, Chesapeake's Geoff E. Parrish avoided the lane lines and had a successful day. The 9-year-old set a league record in the 25-meter freestyle.
Parrish, a Greenbrier Country Club swimmer whose toenails are still the shade of green he and his teammates painted them for the divisional championships, swam a 15.82, bettering his year-old record of 16.61.
In his fourth year of swimming for Greenbrier, Parrish said his goals remained simple. ``I want to swim faster,'' he said.
He did Saturday, edging Sutton Hirschler of Norfolk's Ghent Square team in the 25-meter backstroke. Parrish nailed down a 23.37 swim to Hirschler's 23.55.
But Parrish suffered a loss in the 25-meter butterfly, which rival Michael Lewis from Princess Anne captured with a time of 18.56 to Parrish's 18.78.
Lewis also won the 25 meter backstroke with a time of 21.34. It was a close win. Michael Packer of the Alanton-Baycliff team from Virginia Beach earned a tight second place with a 21.46.
Carolanne's swimming prowess extended to the boys' field.
Tim Norton, a 12-year-old swimming in his seventh all-stars, was coming off two first place wins in distance swims at the recent Junior Olympics in Richmond.
At the all-stars, Norton nabbed first place wins in the 12-and-under 50-meter freestyle with a 30.11, the 100-meter medley with a 1:12.64 and the 50-meter butterfly with a 32.20.
Norton and Carolanne teammate Amanda Cole head to U.S. Swim League zone finals in Pittsburgh today, where they will compete against the top swimmers from 13 states. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Amanda Cole, of the Carolanne Farm swim team, does the backstroke
during the 12-under girls, 100-meter individual medley. Cole won
that event, as well as the 50 freestyle and the 50 butterfly, in
meet-record times as her team won its first divisional championship. by CNB