Having broken the Cape Coast Conference meet’s 100-yard breaststroke record set by the peerless Cassidy Maxwell in 1996, and having taken a conference 200-yard individual medley crown earlier in the day, that probably should have been enough to merit Dani Keymont sufficient honors.
But weeks later, Keymont went to the Florida High School Athletic Association meet in Stuart and took a Class 2A title in 1 minute, 2.18 seconds, the fastest time of any breaststroker at the meet. She also finished fourth in the IM.
Those performances, and a stellar season all-around enjoyed by a swimmer coming off major leg and ankle injuries, are why Keymont is the 2015 FLORIDA TODAY Girls Swimmer of the Year.
“When I went into the state meet, I just wanted to get on the podium,” the Merritt Island High junior said. “I just tried to go as fast as I could, to swim my race. The finish was rewarding.”
Her times came as little surprise to anyone who has followed her career as a competitive swimmer, which started when she was 10. She has a slew of USA Swimming automatic all-America times and is close to an Olympic trial cut.
She will compete in the Arena Grand Prix Series, a national meet next month in Orlando that is expected to draw many of the country’s finest swimmers.
“She is training for that now,” said her coach, Major Hall, of Central Brevard Swimming. “She is already swimming at a high level, a level way beyond her training. … She is going to continue to get faster and faster.”
Keymont said the trick is to balance high school and club swimming, difficult when so much time is spent in a pool every day, “but you find a way,” she said.
Holmes is Boys Swimmer of Year
All-Space Coast Boys Swim Team: Holmes sets records
“I really enjoy swimming for Merritt Island,” she said.
“When I first started to swim, way back when, all my heroes swam for Merritt Island. … High school swimming is important because you get that exposure to people and (situations) you don’t encounter in club swimming.”
They are words spoken by a composed, highly articulate young woman who no doubt would succeed in fields in which she would not get wet every day.
2015 All Space Coast
Honored by USA swimming for her scholarship as well as her athletic achievements, she says she “genuinely enjoys” reading, replies in excellent German to questions posed in bad German grammar and wants to become a doctor.
In the meantime, she gets wet.
“That’s what I do,” she said with a chuckle. “I swim.”
First team
Sarah Boyette
Senior, Astronaut
Adrianna DeBoer
Sophomore, Cocoa Beach
Caroline Dumoulin
Junior, Merritt Island
Dani Keymont
Junior, Merritt Island
Jordan MacDonald
Senior, Titusville
Jamie McGarrigle
Sophomore, Satellite
Sarah Rousseau
Freshman, Viera
Kayla Stevens
Senior, West Shore
Natasha Kremer
Coach, Titusville
Second team
Marissa Cohen, Sr., Melbourne
Courtney Copeland, Jr., Edgewood
Julianna Graf, Fr., Titusville
Coline Heloire, Sr., Merritt Island
Lillian Henderson, Sr., Viera
Jocelyn Lott, Jr., Viera
Hannah O’Toole, Jr., Satellite
Tori Talbert, Soph., Titusville
Honorable mention
Cali Angove, Fr., Cocoa Beach
Sabrina Edelman, Sr., Titusville
Jessica Matteson, Soph., Titusville
Selena Nishihata, 8th, Holy Trinity
Delainee Rust, Fr., Cocoa Beach
Daniela Spies, Fr., Cocoa Beach
Taylor Thompson, Sr., Titusville
Noel Whitlock, Jr., Holy Trinity
Matt Holmes is the 2015 FLORIDA TODAY Boys Swimmer of the Year.
