The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Barracuda Swim Club dominated their 2016 Leno Corporate Services Barracuda Invite Swim Meet over the weekend at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex.

Posting 807 points in the girls and 791 in the boys, the Barracuda Swim Club accumulated a total of 1,598 points to cart off the title. Their nearest rival was the Alpha Aquatics Swim Club with 314. The Dolphin Swimming Club rounded out the top three with 313. The Freeport Aquatic Club came in fourth with 295 and the Blue Marlin Aquatics got the fifth spot out of a total of 12 teams with 285.

The top performances in the two-day meet was spread around the clubs.

In the girls’ divisions, Passion Daniel of the Freeport Aquatic got 59 points and Taliyah Bow of the Sea Waves was the runner-up with 47 in the 8-and-under, Devin Cuffy-Bethel of the Barracuda beat out team-mate Grace Farrington 53-46 in the 9-10, Mandia Roberts of the Barrucada won the 11-12 with Zaylie-Elizabeth Thompson as the runner-up with 43, Anya MacPhail (58) and Amber Pinder (52) led a 1-2 sweep for the Barracuda in the 13-14 and Kaitlyn Slatter was the 15-and-over winner from the Barracuda with 53, while Zoe McCarroll from the Alpha Aquatics was the runner-up with 36.

On the boys’ side, Ellie Gibson of the Blue Marlins was the 8-and-under winner with 47, 10 more than David Roy of Lyford Cay with 37, Blue Marlins’ Marvin Johnson won the 9-10 with 63 over Barracuda’s Hodari Prince with 55, Lamar Taylor of the Freeport Aquatic took the 11-12 title with 61, followed by Roman Pinder of the Abaco Swim Club with 48, the Barracuda got a 1-2 punch from Kevon Lockhart (55) and Ian Pinder (45) in the 13-14 and they the top two spots in the 15-and-over with Randy Paul edging out Tyrique Cox 52-48.

Some of the competitors were quite excited about their performances.

“I beat my best times and I encouraged my other team-mates,” said Anya MacPhail. “Other wise, I think it was a very good meet and the weather was very nice. I have the CARIFTA qualifying time in the 1,500 and the open water and I’m really close off the other times. I know I can get them because I’m only off by a few seconds, but I have the competition to push me to get them.”

The 13-year-old eighth grader from St Andrew’s said she’s looking forward to improving with each meet she competes in.

“It was a good meet. It was really just to show me where I am at for the year,” said Lamar Taylor. “I feel okay, but I know I could do better.”

The 12-year-old eighth grader from Bishop Michael Eldon said he just needs to work on his butterfly and back strokes and he will be right where he needs to be.

“I did pretty good. I dropped my times, so that’s always a plus,” said Kevon Lockhart, who was really impressed with his improvement in his 400m free.

Lockhart, a 14-year-old ninth grader of St Andrew’s, said based on his performance, he’s looking forward to the rest of the year.

Randy Paul, 15, said the meet was all that he expected.

“I felt it was okay for now. I wanted to drop more of my times, but today was the first time that I ever swum the 1,500 and so my time wasn’t that bad for the first time doing it,” he said. “I just hope to improve on it in the future.”

Paul, a 10th grader at St Anne’s School, said he’s hoping that he can make the Bahamas team that will be competing at the CARIFTA Games this year in Martinique over the Easter holiday weekend.

Barracudas coach Trevano McPhee said it was a very good meet and everything went right time-wise. “We had a lot of participation from the teams from Freeport and Abaco,” he said. “A lot of the swimmers are now concentrating on making the cut for CARIFTA and they are swimming close to their best times.”

McPhee said they couldn’t ask for any better weather, which helped to make the weekend a tremendous success.

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