The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

MAKO Aquatic Club continues its impressive showing so far this season, winning the Blue Waves Swim Club Invitational at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex on Saturday.

Coming off two consecutive victories, including their own meet last weekend, Mako captured the title at the end of the one day meet with 624 points.

Their nearest rivals were the host Blue Waves Swim Club with 609. The Dolphins Swim Club got third with 203. Team Orca got fourth with 159 and the Lyford Cay Club rounded out the top five with 118.

The three other clubs that participated saw the Barracuda Swim Club finish sixth with 117, Sea Waves seventh with 107 and Alpha Aquatics eighth with just 25 points.

"We had a good performance today, especially coming off a long meet last week," Mako's head coach Travano McPhee stated. "We had a short week of practice, but the kids look good for so early in the season.

"We have the CARIFTA trials coming up in a couple of months, so the goal is to get through the winter, get through January and February and be ready for Barbados in April."

Dillon Brown, the head coach of the Blue Waves, said they were pleased with the overall results of the meet, especially corporate Bahamas with their sponsorship.

"To the clubs that supported, I must say thank you to them as well," Brown said. "To the swimmers, we are absolutely lost for words with what has happened, being a club that has just been around for about two years."

Based on their performances, Brown said his Blue Waves are slowly progressing with about 60 per cent of their team already qualified for the Bahamas Swimming Federation's National Championships in June.

"We just want to make our mark at Nationals," said Brown of his club that will celebrate their third anniversary in January. "We started off with some difficulties, but we have ironed them out.

"We have better support from the parents now and the swimmers understand the whole concept of swimming and what is expected of them. With each meet, we have new improvements, so I'm really pleased with our progress."

The meet saw Trinity George from the Blue Waves winning the high point trophy in the girls' 8-and-under 40-30 over Mako's Gianna Sands.

Blue Waves' Dijon Simmons and Christon Joseph went head-to-head in the boys' 8-and-under as they finished 1-1 with 39 and 34 points respectively.

Sea Waves also got a 1-2 punch in the 9-10 girls' division as Anjaleah Knowles won with 43, compared to teammate Taliyah Bowe's 38.

Aiden Rollins got the win in the boys' 9-10 division with 30 points, six more than Mako's Anish Roy with 24.

Dreamma Rahming got another victory for the Blue Waves in the 11-12 girls' division with 39, well ahead of Mako's Mia Sastre with 27.

It was also a showdown for the two clubs in the 11-12 boys' division as Blue Waves' Arrieon Johnson edged out Mako's Tristin Ferguson 32-27.

Mako, however, dominated the 13-14 girls as Rachel Lundy nipped teammate Jamilah Hepburn 25-23. They did the same in the 13-14 boys with Joshua Dean winning 40-34 over team-mate Anwar Tucker.

And in the 15-and-over division, it was a reverse of fortune for the two clubs.

Anya MacPhail of Mako won the girls' title with a 43-37 decision over Alexa Dean of the Blue Waves. In the boys' division, Blue Waves' Shawn Ferguson was the winner with 35 points and Davente Carey of Mako was second with 27.

"I could have done a little better, but overall it was a good meet," said Joshua Dean, a 14-year-old 10th grader at St Augustine's College. "I enjoyed the freestyle events. I feel by April, I should be going much faster."

MacPhail, a student at St Andrew's School, said it was a good performance for her.

"Today, I swum all of the 100ms, fly, back, breast and free and 50 free," she pointed out. "I was a little off my times in all of the events, but I still felt pretty good about my performance."

MacPhail, 16, said she was very pleased with Mako's performance as well.

Shawn Ferguson said he couldn't ask for a better performance than what he produced.

"It was pretty good until I reached the 200m fly where I sort of lost it, but I managed to get it back," said Ferguson, a 16-year-old grade 11 student at St Augustine's College. "I'm looking good so far. I'm improving on all my times. I'm trying to make the national team for the first time."

Carey, one of the most outstanding male swimmers here at home, said although it's just his second meet in the season, he's not too concerned about the overall results.

"I just have some things to work on for next year," said Carey, the 16-year-old 12th grader at Queen's College, who lost his only race in the meet in the 50m breast to teammate Kierro Stubbs.

"Hopefully at the next meet I could get better. I didn't have much rest in between the last two meets. The competition is getting stiff now because more guys are coming up."