McKeel's Swinburne back on track as he wins twice at district swim meet

WAUCHULA — It hasn’t exactly been a senior season that McKeel’s Chance Swinburne expected.

“I’ve been sick for most of the season, so it kind of took it away from me of wanting to continue,” he said.

Yet as the season winds down and he’s begun to feel better, he’s starting to feel better about competing. Although he said he’s not going to swim competitively after high school, he’s hoping to cap his career with his best performances at the state meet.

The road to state began on Tuesday, Oct. 27 as he had little trouble winning his two individual events to help lead the McKeel boys to runner-up finish behind host Hardee in the Class 2A, District 7 Swimming and Diving Meet at the Hardee Recreational Complex.

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For the girls, Bryce Palmer and Claire Swinburne each won two individual events, and Elin Jonsson and Jocelyn Chanthavongsa each won one individual event to help lead the girls to the team district title.

As the only individual winner for the boys, Swinburne won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:50.83, then later won the 100 freestyle in 49.14. He was the only swimmer to go sub-50 in the event.

Swinburne said he was happy with his times as he wasn’t pushing for fast times. In each race, Swinburne had a slight lead in the first half of the race before pulling away for decisive wins.

“I’m not trying to go for anything here,” he said. “I already know I’m making regionals. I’ve had a weird practice schedule, but it’s not really swimming. Like last week, Friday and Saturday, they (club) have practices, so I’ve been to this meet with one day. I’m not expecting much of it.”

Swinburne changed clubs in the past year and now goes to Winter Garden for club practice.

“I’ve been training with all these people, and I don’t get to race them at all,” he said. “There are not a lot of people that I can compete with (during the season). Hardee is kind of like the only (team) that I can find someone to compete against, because Marcos Cabrera and I don’t swim the same events.”

McKeel coach Roy Wilshire said he has seen some improvement in Swinburne’s performance recently and said he’s in a good spot if he can stay healthy over the next couple of weeks.

“He’s got the right mindset,” he said. “He knows kind of where his ceiling is there with just a couple of meets left. I’m hopeful he’ll maybe reconsider (about not swimming competitively) as he gets beyond the season, but for right now, his focus is these next couple of weeks; get through regionals and get to state and do his best and represent the team, himself, his family.”

Last season, Swinburne competed in the 50 free and the 100 free in the postseason. He finished 18th in the preliminaries in the 50 free and did not qualify for the finals. In the 100 free, however, he finished 12th in the preliminaries and 12th in the overall finals. His best time this year of 47.76 would have placed him in the top eight.

Swinburne was the top boys swimmer for McKeel. Luke Durden was second in the 200 IM and the 100 fly, and Brandon Sadler was second in the 50 free.

Palmer, Scarborough shine for McKeel girls 

In the girls competition, Bryce Palmer won the 100 butterfly in 1:01.72, and teammate Sophia Silveira Lima was second in 1:04.43. Palmer then won the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.99.

Jonsson faltered early when she finished second in the 200 free but came back strong to win the 100 back in 1:06.21. Chanthavongsa won the 500 free then finished second in the 100 breast.

The McKeel girls also won all three relays.

On Monday, McKeel junior Lyla Paterson won girls diving but didn’t finish with enough points to advance to regionals. Riley Pannone was second.

Overall, Wilshire was pleased with how both his girls and boys swimmers did.

“The objective was to get qualified for regionals, make sure if you were positioned in those auto advanced spots, to get through and I think we absolutely met that requirement today,” he said. “We didn’t necessarily swim great times, but I think collectively, I didn’t really see that against with any team for the most part. So I think they did what they were supposed to do.”

Cabrera wins twice

Lake Wales senior Marcos Cabrera had little trouble advancing in his two events. After opting to again swim in the 50 free in the postseason like last year rather than the 200 individual medley as his second event, Cabrera won the event by nearly two seconds. He finished in 22.10, and McKeel senior Brandon Sadler was second in 23.88.

In his best event, Cabrera won the 100 breaststroke in 58.37. He was the only competitor in the event to finish under one minute.

Lake Wales’ Ady Warrick finished second in the 100 back and third in the 200 breast as the Highlanders finished third in the team competition.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: McKeel’s Swinburne back on track as he wins twice at district swim meet