The St. Petersburg High boys swim team waited 81 years for this.
The Green Devils won the Class 3A state title Nov. 6 at Florida Aquatics Swimming & Training in Ocala. They edged Neptune Beach Fletcher 258-253. Tampa Jesuit was third with 214.
It is the school’s first boys state swimming title since 1945, and its seventh overall. St. Pete also won in 1924, 1925, 1928, 1933 and 1940.
The program has had its share of heartbreak. In 1927, St. Petersburg tied Miami at 26 points. Miami got the trophy because it had four event wins to St. Petersburg’s two.
This time, the Green Devils were the team with four wins.
The meet came down to the last race. Fletcher won both freestyle relays, including the closing 400 free relay in an automatic All-America time of 3:02.60. But St. Petersburg needed only a top-four finish to hold on. Christian Guettler, Cobe Hehenberger, Nolan Kurtz and Sawyer Hansen took second in 3:04.16.
Guettler, a junior, led the way. He won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.32 seconds and the 100 breaststroke in 55.26. He also swam on both runner-up free relays.
The 500 free was where St. Petersburg won the meet. Hansen, a sophomore, won in 4:22.09. Hehenberger, a junior, was third, and Kurtz, a junior, took ninth. That added up to 45 points from one race.
Hehenberger and Hansen also went 2-3 in the 200 free.
Sophomore Jacob Roberts won the 1-meter diving with 506.30 points, 58.25 ahead of the runner-up.
Junior Abram Kinzel was third in the 100 backstroke in 50.74. Finn Hehenberger was 10th in the 200 individual medley, Logan Coakley was 12th in the 100 butterfly and the 200 medley relay took seventh.
Coach Jay Hansen saw it coming. In September, he said, “I think we’re both in the top five this year.”
He was right on both counts. The St. Petersburg girls finished second with 283 points, 10 behind Ponte Vedra, which won its sixth straight title. The girls were also runners-up in 2023 and 2025.
The boys made the bigger jump. They were eighth a year ago and hadn’t finished in the top two since 1948.
Fletcher took second, its best finish since 1962.
For St. Petersburg, the long wait is over.
Quick hits
St. Pete girls close gap, finish second at state
The St. Petersburg High girls keep getting closer.
The Green Devils finished second at the Class 3A state meet Nov. 6 at Florida Aquatics Swimming & Training. Ponte Vedra won its sixth straight title with 293 points. St. Petersburg had 283.
It is St. Petersburg’s third runner-up finish in four years. The gap has shrunk each time. Ponte Vedra won by 90 points in 2023 and by 73 last year. This time it was 10.
The St. Petersburg boys won the 3A title on the same night, giving the program its best state meet in decades.
Junior Brinkleigh Hansen led the girls again. She won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:46.88, more than four seconds ahead of the field. Then she won the 500 free in 4:45.01, nearly 12 seconds clear of the runner-up. Both times met the automatic All-America standard.
Hansen also anchored both free relays.
The closing 400 free relay was all St. Petersburg. Isabella Descent, Skyler Ross, Ansley Bess and Hansen won in 3:28.22. Ponte Vedra was second in 3:31.63.
The 200 free relay was the one that got away. Descent, Elisabeth Santana, Bess and Hansen finished in 1:36.62. Ponte Vedra won in 1:36.47, just 0.15 of a second faster. That cost St. Petersburg 6 points.
Bess, a freshman, made her state debut count. She was fourth in both the 200 free and the 500 free.
Descent, a junior, took third in the 100 free and fourth in the 50 free. Ross, a sophomore, was fourth in the 100 free and fifth in the 200 free.
Sophomore Harper Sango was seventh in the 100 backstroke and eighth in the 200 individual medley. Santana, a senior, was eighth in the 100 butterfly. Junior Addy Dambeck finished eighth in diving, and the 200 medley relay took fourth.
St. Petersburg scored in every event.
With Brinkleigh Hansen, Bess, Descent, Ross and Sango all due back, the Green Devils could be in the hunt again next fall.