Regional Diving: Orloff Looking for Another Title
Thu. November 03, 2011 at 2:00 a.m. | By Polk Preps Staff
By BILL KEMP
Ledger Media Group
Lake Region swim captain Lynee Orloff set a goal to win the county and district diving championships this season, and once the final district numbers were recalculated last week the senior found her mission was accomplished.
Orloff is one of a eleven Polk County divers hoping to seize one of the 24 state-meet berths, in three different classifications, up for grabs as regional swimming and diving competition begins today through Saturday.
The Thunder senior qualified for the 2A state meet last year and will be making her third regional appearance when the Region 3 meet begins Friday at the Northeast High School in St. Petersburg at 10 a.m. She is the No. 6 seed and will be joined by teammate Katrina Ritchey (No.14).
"Lynee is as good a swimmer as a diver, she's qualified the for the breaststroke, too, " Lake Region coach Gene Moore said.
"As captain she felt it was her duty to spend the majority of her time in the pool with the girls and be an example. We put our best dives forward for districts and we got nothing to pull out of the bag for regionals. But she is the type of person who does well under pressure with people and judges watching."
Winter Haven is sending four divers to the 2A-3 regional, including District 7 runner-up James Voisard (419.85 points), who finished fifth in the state last year as a freshman. He is the No. 2 seed behind Larry McVicker (422.80) of Harmony.
"If James has a good day I think definitely he could finish in the top three at state,'' Winter Haven coach Danny Wallace said. "His degree of difficulty has go up. With his gymnastics' background he can try more difficult dives, but I'd rather see a nice, clean dive from him."
Blue Devil sophomores Alex Branstrator (No. 6) and Morgan Osborn (No. 11) join Voisard in the boys' competition.
Winter Haven freshman Hannah Bissett is the No. 12 seed for the girls after finishing with 290.55 points at districts.
George Jenkins sophomore Zak Kerst will be the No. 8 seed when the 3A-2 regional begins today at the Long Center in Clearwater.
Kerst finished fourth (369.85) at the 3A-4 district meet behind today's No. 1 seed Girogi Meyer (508.90) from George Steinbrenner.
