The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

MARISSA Albury, Carter Albury, Dylan Mitchell, Amber Pinder, Samuel Gibson, Celia Campbell, Alec Sands, Joanna Evans and Gershwin Greene were the high point winners of the Gunite Pools/Swift Swimming Invitational Meet over the weekend.

The competitors compiled the top positions in their respective age group divisions of the meet that was held on Friday and Saturday at the Betty Kelly Kenning Aquatic Swim Complex.

The meet, according to Swift Swimming’s head coach Andy Knowles, was slightly different in the other meets on the Bahamas Swimming Federation’s calendar.

“It was good. I think this was really a fun meet. It’s like a mini-nationals,” Knowles said. “Rather than everybody getting into the same routine every time with the Friday night-Saturday morning or just all day Saturday meet, this adds a lot of flavour and a lot of competition to it.

“We did our time finals for all the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500s, we swim all of them at once and all the 50s and 100s do heats and finals. So everybody gets to do the heats in the mornings and they come back and do the timed finals in the evenings. So it’s really good because the kids get a lot of chances to race.”

What was also different about the meet was the fact that instead of presenting the traditional trophies to the winners, the first place finishers received gift certificates from Star Bucks, while second place collected Logos Bookstore vouches and third got Wendy’s.

Swift Swimming won the meet with a total of 5,370 points, followed by the Barracuda Swim Club with 3,304. The Abaco Swim Club made an impressive showing, taking third with 1,644, while fourth went to the Alpha Aquatics Swim Club with 611. Team Orca was fifth with 251; the Dolphins Swim Club sixth with 217 and the Sea Bees Swim Club rounded out the field with 170.

There were no national records broken. But some of the swimmers attained the qualifying standards for the 2014 Carifta Games.

The divisional winners were as follows:

Girls 8-and-under – Marissa Albury (Swift Swimming) 134; Logan Roberts (Swift Swimming) 113; Samantha Martinborough (Swift Swimming) 94

Boys 8-and-under – Carter Albury (Abaco Swimming) 122; Noah Albury (Abaco Swimming) 114; Hodari Prince (Barracuda) 114

Girls 9-10 – Mandia Roberts (Barracuda) 153; Katey Cabral (Swift Swimming) 137; Liya Moncur (Swift Swimming) 133

Boys 9-10 – Dylan Mitchell (Swift) 135; Brayden Dam (Abaco) 133; Jake Thompson (Swift) 128

Girls 11-12 – Amber Pinder (Barrcauda) 157; Anya MacPhail (Swift Swimming) 137; Jewel Pinder (Abaco Swimming) 131

Boys 11-12 – Samuel Gibson (Barracuda) 158; Darren Laing (Swift Swimming) 152; Izaak Bastian (Barracuda) 152; Peter Morley (Swift Swimming) 152

Girls 13-14 – Celia Campbell (Swift Swimming) 151; Jasmine Gibson (Swift Swimming) 134; Sian Longley (Barracuda) 127

Boys 13-14 – Alec Sands (Swift Swimming) 177; Tyler Russell (Swift Swimming) 162; Joshua Roberts (Swift Swimming) 161

Girls 15-and-over – Joanna Evans (Swift Swimming) 160; Doran Reed (Barracuda) 159; Shaunte Moss (Swift Swimming) 133

Boys 15-and-over – Gershwin Greene (Barracuda) 153; Kohen Kerr (Barracuda) 140; N’Nhyn Fernander (Barracuda) 136

Some of the swimmers expressed their delight in their performances in the meet.

Dylan Mitchell, a 10-year-old sixth grader at St Andrew’s School, said he was pleased “overall in how I did in every event, but I was surprised that I came first. As soon as I heard my friend’s name called first, I was like oh, but then I was pleased that I won it. I was pleased with both my 50 free and 100 free. I dropped my times in both of them.”

For 13-year-old Samuel Gibson, he felt he was right on target with his performances.

“My performances were very good. I worked very hard during the day and in the evening sessions, even though I had multiple events to swim back-to-back,” said the eighth grader at Queen’s College. “The pressure was on with so many competitive swimmers, but I just wanted to maintain my Carifta and CISC times. So I was pleased overall, especially with my 400 free. I dropped 16 seconds and got a CISC cut.”

Gershwin Greene, 15, admitted that it was a real challenge for him to get through the meet.

“It was very vigorous trying to swim in the mornings, but having to do back-to-back events in the evening, I just tried to do my best,” said the St Andrew’s School 10th grader. “I was very pleased with the 50 fly and the 50 free because they are my strong events.

Grand Bahamian Joanna Evans said the weather played a factor, but she managed to suck it up.

“A lot of people did best times in their swims so it turned out to be a great meet,” said Evans, a 15-year-old in grade 11 at Bishop Michael Eldon. “I did a lot of PBs (personal best) in a lot of my events, so I was pleased. I was really pleased with my 50 free because I really don’t do that and I still did a good time.”