Davis, Kitner recognized for their water work

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Leonardtown has not lost a single SMAC competition on the girls’ side. The Raiders are 23-0 in dual meets and have won the conference championship twice.

Senior Allison Davis has been in the middle of it all, winning event after event. And she has been voted as The Enterprise female swimmer of the year.

‘‘I think there was a lot of people who doubted us in the first place, but you have to think about Leonardtown,” Davis said.

The senior had a postseason unlike many others.

Due to a snowstorm in mid-February, the SMAC and regional competitions were put five days apart. The regional championships came first Feb. 20, followed by the makeup of the SMAC meet the Saturday after.

Davis posted first-place finishes in both competitions in the 100-yard freestyle. Both ended up being records, too.

At the regional meet, Davis won with a time of 55.37 and broke the previous record by almost 2 1⁄2 seconds.

‘‘It was an amazing experience,” she said. ‘‘I didn’t think I was going to win. It was great.”

Then at the SMAC meet, she bested her own time from regionals and finished in a time of 54.76.

Davis wasn’t finished yet. She took first in the 500 freestyle at the SMAC meet (5:33.63) and swam the anchor leg on the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams. Both foursomes broke records at the SMAC and at regional meets.

‘‘I definitely don’t go into a meet expecting to break records,” Davis said. ‘‘If I swim my best and I get a record, then that’s awesome.”

The senior’s performance in the postseason was even more remarkable by the fact that she broke a finger halfway through the season.

‘‘It was really tough sometimes,” Davis admitted. ‘‘It was something I couldn’t get around, just a hurdle.”

Leonardtown coach Megan Shelton said that the senior got her best times when she was injured.

‘‘This was her second year, so she understood more what was going on. She was the main focus of our team from the beginning,” Shelton said.

Davis was a unanimous choice for the female swimmer of the year.

‘‘I think that she’s just a tough swimmer,” said Chopticon coach Robbie Davis, who was selected as coach of the year for the second straight season. ‘‘They had really good swimmers [at Leonardtown], but she brought out the greatness in them. As a senior, I just think her leadership led that team to a dominant performance.”

While Davis gets the accolades, the senior pointed to the freshmen who made a huge difference on this year’s squad. Brittany Culpepper, Davi Clark and Justine Cavnor are among the Raiders freshmen on this year’s All-County team and all of whom were on the champion relay teams with Davis.

‘‘Our freshmen were very strong,” Davis said. ‘‘They’re very good. They’re definitely spirited and very strong and very hard to compete with, I think. I think we had a very good group of freshmen.”

Davis has been around the competitive swimming scene since she was 9. While the high school season is completed, she continues to swim and did so this past weekend at a sectional meet at the U.S. Naval Academy. The meet featured teams from most of the East Coast.

‘‘It’s what I worked all year for,” Davis said prior to the meet. ‘‘I made sectional cuts. I was real excited. It’s been awesome.”

Great Mills junior John Kitner picked up the male swimmer of the year honors. He was a unanimous selection as well.

Kitner, who transferred from Patuxent to Great Mills, finished first in the 100 free (51.14) and 200 free (1:56.90) at the SMAC meet. The junior could not be reached for comment by press time, but his coach praised Kitner’s performances this season.

‘‘He led a group of just four boys to an eighth-place finish at SMAC in his first year at Great Mills, taking two SMAC championship spots and setting a bruising relay pace for his teammates,” Great Mills coach Brent Gordon said.

E-mail Paul Watson at pwatson@somdnews. com.