Key West dove into its season with a pair of home swimming meets on Aug. 28 and 29. For their home opener, the Conchs dispatched the Pirates of Port Charlotte in both boys and girls competition.
The Lady Conchs outscored the Pirates 81-23, with strong times and performances from a talented group. Mary Searcy, Amelia Korzen, Georgia Houze and Christina Rice started things off with a win in the 200-yard medley relay. Rice went on to anchor the winning 200 freestyle relay alongside Houze, Korzen and Veronica Ter Azaryan, then beat out a large field of individual competitors in the 50 and 100 freestyle events. Rice finished those races in 26.27 and 58.50 seconds, respectively.
Houze won the individual 200 IM in 2:45 and the 100 butterfly in 1:18. Korzen picked up an individual win in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:19, while Searcy won the 100 backstroke in 1:23.
Taylor Thomason went the distance in the 500 freestyle, finishing in 7:22, then teamed up with Ter Azaryan, Summer Smith and Morgan Kennedy to win the 400 freestyle relay.
The boys team sent the Pirates off the plank, outscoring Port Charlotte 88-8. Blake Southgate, Hugo Blinckmann, Haven Andrade and Max Blinckmann got the Conchs on the scoreboard first with a win in the 200 medley relay.
The Blinckmann brothers also swam legs of the winning 200 freestyle relay with the help of Filip Hrabec and Santiago Gonzalez. Hugo Blinckmann went on to win the 50 freestyle in 23.76 seconds, while Hrabec won the 100 breaststroke in 1:14.
Andres Aguero won the 200 IM in 2:39, then teamed up with Haven Andrade, Gonzalez and Mason Lark for a win in the 400 freestyle relay.
Gonzalez had a pair of individual wins to complement his relay victories. The senior won the 200 freestyle in 2:02 and the 100 freestyle in 52.67 seconds. Andrade added wins in the 100 butterfly (1:03) and 500 freestyle (6:49).
The following afternoon, the Cowboys of Cooper City rode away with the wins, defeating Key West’s girls 81-74 and boys 97-61.
Rice was the big winner for the Lady Conchs, finishing first in a pair of events. The speedy sophomore touched the wall first in the 50 freestyle in 26.30 seconds and won the 100 freestyle in 57.95. Houze won the 200 IM in 2:49 to round out the first-place finishes for the girls team.
Hugo Blinckmann was the fastest Conch in the pool Aug. 29, claiming first place in the 50 freestyle in 24.12 seconds. Blinckmann was the lone individual winner for the Conch boys, but the 400 freestyle relay team outswam a quartet of Cowboys. Andres Aguero, Jamie Konecny, Mason Lark and Santiago Gonzalez made up the winning team in that event.
