Hazelwood Sharks Can't Float Against Florissant Fish

FLORISSANT – When the Hazelwood Sharks summer swim club has its full roster available for a particular meet, it can be a difficult group to beat.

The Sharks proved that with an impressive meet win against the last week at .

But on Monday at Bangert Pool on New Florissant Road, the Sharks were missing several key team members, and that lack of depth showed throughout. Hazelwood lost its second team meet of the season, as the end result 621-435, to the host and defending league champ the Florissant Fish.  

“I thought we had a pretty good meet all around,” said Sharks head coach Todd Ankenbrand. “We were missing some people, but we’re pretty happy with how we did.”

Not having all its swimmers proved mostly problematic in the relay events for the Sharks.

Florissant won nearly all of them, including the 13 to 14-year-old girls’ relays, which until Monday evening, Hazelwood had dominated all season.

In fact, the Sharks’ 13 to 14 girls team hadn’t lost any races all season. But the Fish defeated them in both relays. The age group also lost in all but two of the individual races, as well.

“We were missing one girl tonight,” Ankenbrand said. “And we also try to switch things up, so kids get to (participate) in different events. But I thought the girls that did swim, swam fine.”

The Sharks’ 13 to 14-year-old girls team had two victories on Monday. The first was in the 50-meter individual freestyle, where middle schooler, Abigail Simms, came in first place. The second win was in the 50-meter individual backstroke, where Molly Fiore took first, and teammate Kara Libby took second.

The one unit that did dominate for Hazelwood was the 15 to 18-year-old girls group, which won all but one its races. This included both relays and three of the four individual races.

In fact, in two of those races, the 50-meter individual freestyle and the 50-meter individual butterfly, the Sharks completely swept the race and took first, second and third place.

“Our 15-18’s are strong,” Ankenbrand said. “Most of them swam for Hazelwood West, and they did really well.”

Recent West High grad Samantha Zaiz was one of the standouts for the Sharks on Monday.

She was part of both winning relay teams, and she won what might have been the most exciting race of the night, when she claimed a split second victory against Florissant’s Rose van Hatten in the 50-meter individual backstroke.

On the boys side is where Florissant really gained its overall meet edge. The Fish won every boys relay race, and claimed most of the individual first-places, as well.

“It kind of hurts us that we only have four or five 13 to 14-year-old boys,” Ankenbrand said. “So we have no relays at that age. We lose some points there.”

One event Florissant wasn’t able to win, and what proved to be one of the real surprises of the night was in the boys’ 15 to 18 year-old 50-meter freestyle. Hazelwood West High junior LaTrae Lane was able to chase down and pass two Florissant racers for a thrilling first-place win.

Lane was in third place when the racers made the turn for the final stretch, but showed a tremendous final kick, which allowed him to pick up his first individual race win of the summer.

“LaTrae’s a really excellent swimmer,” Ankenbrand said. “And he’s a really great kid. All the kids like him, and he works real hard.”  

Another particularly stirring victory for the Sharks came in the 6-year-old boys 25-meter freestyle where first-grader, Gavin Baldes, won for the third time this summer. The win came as a surprise because Gavin had to stop swimming midway through the race to fix his goggles.

Gavin had a big lead initially, but lost it when he had to stop swimming near the halfway point of his race because his eyewear had slipped down over his face and he couldn’t see anymore.

But once the problem was corrected, Hazelwood’s youngest swimmer, who hasn’t lost a race yet this summer, was able to regroup and easily win his race.

“We had a good meet all around,” Ankenbrand said.

Hazelwood’s next meet will be Tuesday, when the Sharks will take on Dellwood, at the Dellwood Pool.

Hazelwood’s next home meet will be two days later on June 30, when the Sharks will host the Ferguson Sea Lions, at the White Birch Park.  

Both meets are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.