Jamaica’s Keanan Dols was a member of the Riverview High school team that captured the boys’ titles at Florida 4A Championships title at the Sailfish Splashpark Aquatic Athletics Center in Stuart Florida on Saturday Nov 5.
Dols, who will be making his senior team debut at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Windsor Canada next month had podium finishes in 3 of the 4 events that he contested. He was atop the podium in the first final contested in the evening, the 200 yard medley relay. His Rams team of Austin Katz backstroke (22.54), Brett Riley breaststroke (26.82), Keanan butterfly (22.29) and Tyler Carmichael freestyle (21.87) took top honours in a total team time of 1:33.52. This is the second consecutive title for the Rams in this event.
The influence of the CARIFTA region is seen in this event as the fastest ever medley relay in high school history was set by the 2014 Baylor team that included Olympian Dustin Tynes from The Bahamas and Christian Selby of Barbados that has the standard at 1:27.74.
It was in the 200 yard freestyle relay where Dols who is a senior had his best executed race. He clocked 21.44 to lead off his team that included Katz (20.69), Brendan Firlie (21.29) and Aye-Chan San Tun (21.70).The team’s final Silver medal winning time was 1:25.12.The winners were Fleming Island who won in 1:24.53.
He would win yet another medal this time in the 100 yard backstroke. In the final he had the fastest 2nd 50 yards of 25.57 but was just out touched for the Gold by Mason Wilby 50.22 to 50.28. That time is the best ever for Keanan in a Championship final.
At the World Short Course Championships in the 25 metre pool he will be chasing the 100 metre backstroke record of 55.55 set by Timothy Wynter at the 2012 Istanbul Championships.
In the 200 yard individual medley in a very tight finish Dols clocked a personal best of 1:49.74 to finish 4th overall. The top 4 finishers all dipped under the 1:50 mark with 1:49’s across the board. Robert Finke (Countryside), 1;49.34 Gold ,John Fulginiti (Hagerty) 1:49.53 Silver and John Hutton (Fleming Island) 1:49.55 Bronze.
The CARIFTA region has a say in the record books as the state record is held by Olympian Bradley Ally (St Thomas Aquinas) at 1:46.31 set in 2004.When he set that standard it was the fastest time ever by a high school swimmer.
In Windsor Keanan will be challenging the 200 metre individual medley record of 2:08.88 set by Dominic Walter in 2015.
Riverview took the male title with 276 points, Fleming Island 2nd with 189 points and Countryside 3rd with 160 points. When asked about the win Keanan had the following thoughts
“It’s pretty exciting to win our 3rd straight championship. It’s something we sometimes take for granted with how successful both our men’s and women’s teams have been but it’s still pretty meaningful”
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