The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Usually when a club hosts a meet, they are expected to dominate the competition.

Over the weekend at the Betty Kelly Kenning National Swim Complex, the Barracuda Swim Club opened the Bahamas Swimming Federation’s 2012/13 season by 2,224 points over their nearest rivals, Swift Swimming.

The Barrucada Club wrapped up their two-day meet on Saturday by collecting 2,410 points in the girls’ division and 2,349.50 in the boys’ for a total of 4,759.50 points. Swift came in second in both divisions with 1,231 in the girls and 1,304 in the boys for their total of 2535.

The visiting Lucayan Lightning swim team from Grand Bahama was third in the girls with 507 and fourth in the boys with 323 for their third place finish overall with 830.

Rounding out the remainder of the seven participating clubs in order were the Dolphins with 742 points overall, followed by Team Orca with 431, the Alpha Aquatics Bahamas with 395 and the Sea Bees Swim Club with 324.50. There were a number of other swimmers who competed unattached.

Barracuda’s head coach Sue Coleby said that while their victory was a sweet one, it was just a taste of what to expect as the season progresses.

“I thought the swimmers swam really well. We had a lot of support from the other clubs and they dropped their times considerably, so we had a good start for the beginning of the season,” she said. “The water wasn’t too close. So as we look ahead to the rest of the season, we expect that we will go on and win the Nationals.”

The meet had a lot of outstanding performances, some of which came from the swimmers who were selected as the high point winners in their respective age groups. Those winners were as follows:

Girls Division

8-and-under - Mandia Roberts

(Barracuda) 117 points

Runner-up - Katelyn Cabral

(Lucayan Lightning) 89

9-10 - Amber Pinder

(Barracuda) 134

Runner-up - Virginia Stamp

(Barracuda) 127

11-12 - Sian Longley

(Barracuda) 106

Runner-up - Kaitlyn Slatter

(Barracuda) 105

13-14 - Joanna Evans

(Lucayan Lightning) 97

Doran Reed (Barracuda) 97

15-17 - Gabrielle Greene

(Barracuda) 117

Runner-up -

Abigail Lowe (Barracuda) 111

Boys Division

8-and-under - Nicholas

Wallace-Whitfield

(Lucayan Lightning) 120

Runner-up - Jake Thompson

(Swift Swimming) 96

9-10 - Peter Morley

(Swift Swimming) 123

Runner-up - Luke Thompson

(Swift Swimming) 108

11-12 - Cameron Riley

(Barracuda) 100

Runner-up - Joshua Roberts

(Swift Swimming) 97

13-14 - Christopher Johnson

(Barracuda) 132

Runner-up - Tyrique Cox

(Barracuda) 128

15-17 - Kohen Kerr

(Barracuda) 144

Runner-up - Sashuan Armbrister

(Barracuda) 131

Kohen Kerr, the highest point achiever in the meet, said his performance “was really good.”

“I was pleased with it. I was really surprised with my times and hopefully I can go faster in the future,” said the 16-year-old.

Kerr, an 11-year-old student at Queen’s College, was extremely pleased with his 100 metre butterfly that he touched the wall in one minute and 5.11 seconds behind winner and arch-rival Keith Lloyd of Sea Bees (1:04.66) in the time trials, as well as his 200 freestyle that he stopped the clock in 2:18.41, well ahead of second place finisher Sashuan Armbrister from the Sea Bees (2:36.84).

“This year, I want to at least swim 58 in the 100 fly and below 2:15 in the 200 fly,” he said.

Doran Reed, who emerged tied on top of the girls 13-14 division with Grand Bahamian Joanna Evans, said she was pleased with her performance on Saturday, as opposed to what she did on Friday night.

“I usually don’t swim that well at night, but I think I did very well,” said the 15-year-old Reed. “I’m really pleased with my 100 free and my 50 free. Those are my strong events.”

In one of the more competitive showdowns at the meet, Joanna Evans took the 100 free in 1:04.22 with Doran Reed posting second in 1:04.63.

In the shorter 50 free, Reed returned the favour as she did 29.51 to beat out Evans, who came through in 29.58.

“I want to try and break the 50 free record of 27.4 by Nationals, so I really just want to get that, as well as at least do a minute in my 100 free,” Reed said.

Sian Longley, the girls 11-12 winner, said she had a “little difficult start (Friday night), but today I felt so much better and I just went for the gold.”

Her best performance came in the 100 breaststroke where she was third in 43.66 (the winner was Victoria Russell of Swift in 41.82, followed by Lauren Albury of Lucayan Lightning in 42.33) and the 50 free where she had the eighth best time of 36.71 (Lauren Albury ended up first overall in 32.09).

“I just want to swim very well this year and improve on my times,” said the 11-year-old grade seven student at Queen’s College.

For Peter Morley, the 9-10 standout, the meet went just as expected. “It was pretty good. I swum the 200 back. It was good.”

The 11-year-old St Andrew’s High School student took his specialty in the 200 back in 2:58.60. “I want to get a couple of Carifta cuts so I can go to Carifta next year,” he said.

Amber Pinder was the highest point achiever on the girls’ side. She was more than thrilled with her effort.

“I felt my performance was pretty good. I did very well and I improved on my times,” she stated. “I was pleased with my 50 fly and my 200 free.”

The 11-year-old grade seven student at Queen’s College student’s time of 2:46.35 in the 9-10 girls 200 free was so impressive that she was the only swimmer to dip under three minutes. In her 50 fly, she turned in a time of 36.49 that was well ahead of her rivals.

And Mandia Roberts was the rising young star in the lower age group. “I thought I did very well. I dropped all of my times today. It was great,” she said.

The nine-year-old fourth grader at Queen’s College took the 100 breast in 1:46.94, lost the 50 back (48.25) to Grand Bahamian Katelyn Cabral (46.57), but reversed the order of finish in the 50 free in 37.89, compared to (Cabral) her rival’s time of 41.44.

“This year I expect to go faster and get all my times down,” she said.