A pair of Miami-Dade County swimmers won individual titles at the Region 1-4A meet on Saturday. Ransom Everglades’ Annie Valls and St. Brendan’s Wayne Denswil won the girls’ and boys’ 100 breaststroke, respectively.

With the help of a fast start, Denswil trounced the competition by close to half a second at Nova Southeastern University.

“I knew I was going to win,” he said. “I wasn’t that prepared, but I think I did pretty good.”

Denswil hopes that with some rest and extra attention to his turns, he can lower his 100 breaststroke time to a low 56 seconds by the state meet next week.

“I’m excited,” he added.

Valls had a tougher swim in her race. The girls’ 100 breaststroke had three athletes — including Valls — that swam All-American consideration times in prelims.

Entering the race’s last 10 yards, the pack of swimmers was nearly tied. As the swimmers neared the wall, Valls was able to separate from the pack for an eight-tenths-of-a-second victory.

“I’m going to keep training and working on the little things,” she said.

Valls’ 1:05.21 was slightly slower than her All-American consideration time of 1:05.04 in prelims. For Valls’ friend and rival Evita Leter the race was somewhat of a disappointment. Leter, who was seeded first, finished fourth with a time of 1:06.01. Valls credits Leter with helping push her in the race.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do that time without Evita,” Valls said.

With the exception of Valls and Denswil, Miami-Dade swimmers struggled in the meet. A number of county swimmers who were seeded first in their events failed to win titles. Only one Dade team, the Ransom girls’ 200 medley relay, finished in the top three. With the win, the Raiders were able to secure a third-place team finish.

St. Brendan sophomore Zuhayr Pigot nearly won the 100 fly, but was out-touched at the wall by Sagemont’s Lucas Debrito. Pigot, who swam a personal-best 50.60, expects a rematch with Debrito at the state final.

“I was doing good but at the end my arms got tired. I don’t know what happed,” Pigot said. “I wanted to keep going but I didn’t know how. I was ahead of him the whole race except the last 25 yards.”

In the team competition, Plantation American Heritage and Pine Crest won the boys’ and girls’ titles, respectively. The Pine Crest girls won two of the relays and had a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay. Senior Brittany Hammond was key to the Panthers win. The senior anchored the 400 free relay and the 500 free with an All-American Automatic time of 4:51.48.

A number of county athletes had times that should be low enough to advance to the state tournament next week. Only the winner of each event automatically qualifies for the state final. After all regional events are done, the top 20 fastest times in each event advance.

Boys’ top 8 team results: 1. American Heritage Plantation 307, 2. Pine Crest 298, 3. St. Andrews 257, 4. Sagemont 208, 5. University 181, 6. Gulliver 159, 7. Coral Shores 113.5, 8. Cardinal Gibbons 104.5. Top 4 individual results: 200 medley relay: 1. St. Andrew 1:38.28, 2. Pine Crest 1:41.94, 3. American Heritage Plantation 1:41.94, 4. Cardinal Gibbons. 200 free: 1. Jemal Legrand, SAG, 1:40.00, 2. Julien Pinon, AHPL, 1:41.41, 3. Kent Haeffner, PC, 1:42.38, 4. Marco Hosfeld, UNI, 1:42.65. 200 IM: 1. Quinn Cassidy, STA, 1:54.28, 2. Julian Radice, LAS, 1:55.70, 3. Alex Evenson, PC, 1:58.16, 4. Matt Smutny, SFH, 1:58.26. 50 free: 1. Daniel Spas, AHPL, :20.91, 2. D. Holland, PC, :21.79, 3. Scott Clark, AHPL, :22.11, 4. Hank Contich, CCFT, :22.28. 100 fly: 1. Lucas DiBrito, SAG, :50.41, 2. Zuhayr Pigot, STB, :50.60, 3. Wayne Denswil, STB, “51.73, 4. Shawn Warner, STAD, :51.89. 100 free: 1. Jemal Le Grand, SAG, :45.87, 2. Daniel Spas, AHPL, :45.96, 3. Nicolas Conrad, STAD, :47.76. 500 free: 1. Kent Haeffner, PC, 4:36.92, 2. Marco Hosfeld, UNI, 4:36.52, 3. Lucas Debrito, SAG, 4:40.14, 4. Julian Radice, LAS, 4:41.06. 200 free relay: 1. American Heritage Plantation 1:28.08, 2. Sagemont 1:28.30, 3. St. Andrew 1:28.58, 4. Pine Crest 1:29.25. 100 back: 1. Chad Moody, CG, 1. Luke Hayhoe, STAD, :53.29, 3. Matt Smutny, SFHL, :55.38, 4. Guy Fernandes, MAST, :55.87. 100 breast: 1. Wayne Denswil, SB, :59.45, 2. Quinn Cassidy, STAD, :59.78, 3. Daniel Pereira, UNI, 1:00.70, 4. Nicholas Junghahn, MAST, 1:01.50. 400 free relay: 1. Sagemont 3:10.60, 2. American Heritage Plantation 3:10.90, 3. St. Andrew 3:15.83, 4. Pine Crest 3:17. 71. Diving: 1. Briadam Herrera, GP, 601.95, 2. Zach Laurence, UNI, 417.15.