Arnold hosts Region 1-1A swim meet

PANAMA CITY BEACH - Arnold swim coach Dirk Naegele is comfortable with everything at Friday’s Region 1-1A swim meet except the competition.

Unlike past years, the Marlins will get to sleep in their own beds, dive off their own blocks and swim in their own pool, as the event will be held at the Panama City Beach Aquatic Center, just a few minutes west of Arnold High School.

“It’s a huge advantage,” Naegele said.

Of the 33 schools that will converge for the meet, some which will drive more than six hours to compete, Naegele has his eyes on one in particular: Jacksonville Bolles.

“We have a tough region,” he said. “Bolles has, I think, in every event all four swimmers in it and most of those swimmers are in the Top 8.

“It’s the private schools that are our biggest competition.”

The swimming prelims will begin at 9 a.m. and the finals will follow at 5 p.m. Diving will take place at 1:30 p.m.

Each prelim event will have two heats of eight swimmers. The top eight times will move on to the finals, which will feature a championship heat and a consolation heat for the bottom eight swimmers from the prelims.

The winners from each individual event advances to the FHSAA state finals on Nov. 1 at the Central Florida YMCA Aquatic Center in Orlando. The next 24 best times from across the state also advance in the individual scoring meet. No team scores are kept beyond district meets.

The winning relay teams from each of the eight regions across the state advance and then the next 16 best times across the state also advance.

Arnold’s best bets for a state berth are its relays, Naegele said.

Two of the Marlins boys relay teams, the 200 medley and 400 freestyle, are each seeded third of 16 teams in their prelims. The medley relay’s seed time is 1:54.04 and the 400 freestyle’s is 3:40.91. The boys 200 freestyle is seeded fourth with a time of 1:37.24.1

The girls 200 medley relay (2:09.45) and 400 freestyle relays (4:13.97) are seeded sixth, while the 200 free is 13th with a time of 2:03.27.

Individually, Naegele said three swimmers have a good shot at state.

“Katie Branham, Cody and Drew (Bronnenberg), if they have the time drops we’re hoping for with our tapering and stuff,” he said.”

Branham’s 25.84 seconds seed time in the 50 freestyle is the seventh best time out of 24 swimmers.

Senior Drew Bronnenberg is competing in two individual events, the 500 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. His seed time of 5:19.50 in the 500 seventh best out of 24 swimmers and his breaststroke time of 1:09.74 earned him the ninth seed. Bronnenberg’s younger brother, Cody, a freshman, will swim the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley.

His backstroke time of 58.06 seconds is the seventh fastest and his individual medley time of 2:07.29 earned him an eighth seed.

Naegele said freshman Troy VonBlankenburg could contend for an at-large state berth in the 200 and 500 freestyle behind Drew Bronnenberg because his time has dropped as Arnold began tapering. VonBlankenburg’s 5:22.67 prelim time in the 500 free was the eighth fastest, one spot behind Drew, and his 1:59.82 200 freestyle time earned him an eighth seed, one better than teammate Cameron Lahren.

“The time drop could bump him to going to state,”

An Arnold surprise could be Chris Miner in the 50 and 100 freestyle. His 24.75 seconds time in the 50 free is the 12th-fastest time in the field and his time of 54.13 seconds in the 100 is 10th best.

The Marlins two entries in the boys 1-meter diving competition, have the two lowest scores. Duncan McIntyre’s seed score is 286.60 and Macen Payne’s is 280.70. The highest seed score belongs to Alexander Pecci, a freshman from Bolles, with 463.95.

Arnold began tapering last weekend, and continued cutting back on its practice routine as a way to maximize speed until today.

Today during practice the Marlins will have a shave down, when the swimmers shave their arms, legs, beards and mustaches.

“Shaving down makes their bodies real sensitive to the water and can actually cut down three to four seconds off their time,” Naegele said.

But, he pointed out, it works well only once a season.

“We did this last year. Pretty good time drop for a lot of our swimmers and it works. They do it on the college level and the high school level all the time. The theory is by shaving down your skin is very sensitive and you can fell the water better and you can swim faster.”