The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Barracuda Swim Club dominated their annual Insurance Management Invitational swim meet at the Betty Kelly Kenning Aquatic Center over the weekend.

The Barracuda topped the field of 10 clubs by posting a 1,742 point victory with their nearest rivals, the Alpha Aquatics Swim Club - a distant second with 366. The Abaco Swim Club got third with 302.

Noticeably missing was the Swift Swimming Club, who pulled out Friday night, claiming that it was a little too cold for their swimmers to compete. However, there was some report that Swift Swimming decided not to continue to compete after some of the clubs opted not to compete in their recent Gunite Pool meet because of the cold weather.

Despite whatever the problem was, Barracuda’s head coach Travano McPhee said they still had a very impressive meet.

“We were a little concerned about the weather during the week, but yesterday (Friday) was a good turnout and today (Saturday) was even better with the weather,” McPhee said.

“We had some good performances with some people getting close to the CARIFTA cuts. Abaco and Freeport came down, so even though we didn’t have Swift in the meet, I was still very pleased with the way things turned out. It would have been good to have them here, but I guess the weather was a factor for them.”

Abaco came to town with eight swimmers and Sara Knowles, one of their coaches, felt that their team performed exceptionally well.

“They did very well. Many of them did their personal bests, so we were proud of them. We had two high point winners, so they are happy with their performances,” Knowles said.

“We’re still training, so we will be back for another meet at the end of February. We have a number of CARIFTA hopefuls so we are anxious to see how they compete. We only brought the younger swimmers here for this meet.”

Brayden Dam was one of the two Abaco swimmers in the spotlight. The 10-year-old won the boys 9-10 age group division with 61 points.

“I felt very good about my performance. It went very good,” said Brayden, who said his 200 fly was his best event in the meet. “The competition was good. I hope to come back and compete. I had a lot of fun.”

Another Abaconian Taylor Albury shared top honours in the girls’ 11-12 division with Barracuda’s Katherine Slatter with 54 points apiece.

“It was really good. I had a lot of competition, but it was really good,” said 12-year-old Albury. “I enjoyed the 400 IM. It was the first event I did, so it was a lot of fun.”

The meet was not all fun for some of the older swimmers. It was another qualifier for the CARIFTA Games and Samuel Gibson was one of those swimmers who is looking to make his presence felt when the Bahamas goes to Barbados over the Easter holiday to defend the title won last year in Aruba.

“It was very good. I had a couple of tough events in the 200m fly and 200m free,” said Gibson, the winner of the boys’ 13-14 high point trophy with 59 points. “But overall, I think I performed very well.”

The Barracuda swimmer who attends Queen’s College did the qualifying time for Carifta in the 200m fly, 200m free and 50 fly. So far, he has already qualified in six events.

“I am very pleased with where I am, but I am still working hard because I want to go to Carifta and do very well,” he said.

No longer eligible for Carifta, College of the Bahamas engineering student Kohen Kerr took the title in the 15-and-over boys division with 47 points ahead of his Barracuda teammate Meshach Roberts, who collected 47 points.

“The meet was good. The water was a little cold, but we had to fight over that,” Kerr said. “I’m a senior boy now, so I’m used to swimming in the cold water and making the adjustment.

Kerr, 18, said he was pleased with his performance in the 100m breast, even though he was second behind teammate Utoy Wong.

Other high point winners were girls 8-and-under Diane Maillis (Barracuda) 41, boys 8-and-under - Marvin Johnson (Blue Marlin) 63, girls 9-10 - Rachel Lundy (Barracuda) 59, boys 11-12 - Kevon Lockhart and Ian Pinder (both Barracuda) 59, girls 13-14 - Sian Lockhart (Barracuda) 59 and girls 15-and-over Andreas Weech (Alpha Aquatics) 27.