Recapping Cayman’s collegiate swimmers’ mid-season

Representing the ‘345’ in lands as near as Florida and as far afield as Canada and England, many of Cayman’s collegiate athletes hit the water across the globe in November for mid-season invitationals – for most, the first big meet of the 2022-23 season. Despite training regimes and season plans often varying considerably from school to school, the nation’s young athletes shone with performances ranging from seasonand lifetime bests, to best in the entirety of the USA’s NCAAswimming ranks – and nearly the best in history.

Crooks cements name in the record books

As a freshman at the University of Tennessee last season (2021-22), seasoned Cayman Swimming representative Jordan Crooks had already made his mark in history by becoming the fastest ever first-year in US college swimming in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle. Both of those standards were set during the championship stretch of the season (at Tennessee’s SEC Conference Championships, and the nation-wide NCAA Championships a month later, respectively), during which time swimmers are typically full rested and at their peak performance.

But now, only a few months into his sophomore season swimming for the Vols, Crooks has demolished his lifetime best 50-yard freestyle time (previously 18.53) while leading off his team’s 200-yard (4×50-yard) freestyle relay at the 2022 Tennessee Invitational. Crooks’ lightning-fast, meet recordtime of 18.27 now ties him as the 2nd-fastest swimmer of all-time, of any age, in the event with current University of California, Berkeley junior Bjorn Seeliger – and behind only Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel. Just as impressively, that time also ranks by far the fastest outside of a championship competition in history. The meet was during the middle of a long college swimming season, and whilst the 20-year-oldadmits he was shaved down and geared up in a racing suit, he was also only slightly rested – raising the question of just how fast he could end up going by the end of this season.

The Tennessee team won that relay in a new meet record time, as well as earning wins in the 400-yard freestyle, 800-yard freestyle, 200-yard medley and 400-yard medley relays, all featuring Crooks. The star sophomore also claimed individual event wins in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and100-yard butterfly – all of which saw him soar to the top of the national rankings in each event so far this season. His 41.17 100-yard freestyle was a mere 0.01 seconds away from his all-time best, while big lifetime bests and more meet records were achieved in both the 100-yard butterfly (44.79, school record) and 100-yard backstroke (45.55).

“I’m happy with my swims last weekend,” said Crooks – but, humble and ever-hungry for more, he will be the first to tell you there’s no time to stop now, continuing “there’s still lots to learn and polish up, and I look forward to racing again at short course (25-meter) Worlds.” Crooks will be joined for those mid-December World Championships in Melbourne, Australia by his younger sister, Jillian, before returning to the collegiate stage for a handful of other dual meets, SEC (conference) Championships and NCAAs in the openingmonths of 2023.

Jackson duo flourish

The current No. 1-ranked sprinter is not the only young Caymanian swimming faster than ever and snagging mid-season wins: the dynamic duo that are Cayman’s and the University of Northern Colorado’s Jackson sisters – Sarah and Alison – came away from their mid-season invitational at Utah Tech University with a staggering 100% rate of lifetime bests.

Currently a college senior, Sarah (who will graduate next summer with a BS in Dietetics) had set her personal bar of expectations as high as could be coming into the meet, in what will either be her final or penultimate collegiate swim season. She aimed for personal best times in all of the events in her schedule – and a series of strong performances in both individual and relay races made sure she got exactly that.Swimming the individual 50, 100 and 200-yard freestyle as well as the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays and 200-yard medley relay, Sarah’s quickest times (and new personal bests)from the meet in each individual event were clocked at 24.28, 53.46 and 1:55.25. As well as being an all-time best, that 200-yard time was a whopping 6.86 seconds quicker than she had been all season, with improvements of over a second and two and a half seconds seen in both the 50 and 100-yarrd events, respectively. To make her meet all the more impressive – and in a manner that former coach at Stingray Swim Club, David Pursley, would have been proud of – the older Jackson sister actually set both of those fastest times in the 50 and 100 on the lead-off leg of the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays.

“Considering I battled injury most of last season, I’ve been so happy to be competing at my full capacity,” she said. The senior explained that the UNCO team (similar to Crooks) had a ‘drop taper’ to sharpen up heading into their mid-season meet, but her confidence in training was what allowed her to have (and meet) her high expectations. Sarah could well opt in for a fifth year of eligibility in college swimming (afforded to swimmers following COVID pandemic-enforced cancellation of competitions in the last few years) as a UNCO Bear or will otherwise head to graduate school to study Dietetics or Public Health.

Meanwhile, the younger of the Jackson sisters has been impressed with the team’s performances so far this season (they hold a 4-1 dual meet record and are undefeated within their conference).

“As a team we’ve been showing up and getting our hand on the wall in dual meets, which is exciting. We’re in a much different place right now than we have been in other seasons, so going into this weekend I didn’t know what to expect,” Alison (Ali) admitted. Despite those uncertainties in expectations for her own performance heading into their meet in Utah, the junior (whose current major is in Sports & Exercise Science) went on to match her sister’s flawless personal best rate.

Swimming the exact same event lineup as Sarah, plus one more relay appearance in the 400-yard medley relay, Ali (often as the ever-important final, or anchor, leg) helped her relay teams to a 7th place and three 6th place finishes, twice throwing down sub-23 second 50-yard freestyles. On the individual side, Ali swam in the fastest final each time – posting season and lifetime bests across all three of the 50 (23.11), 100 (49.76) and 200-yard (1:52.26) freestyle events.Those swims earned the St Ignatius graduate 6th over 200-yards, and podium finishes of 3rd in the 50 and 1st in the 100-yard freestyle at the 11-team invitational meet, with her 100-yard time improving on her No. 2 ranking in school history.All three times were substantial improvements on her season bests so far, including a staggering 3.46 second drop over 100-yards.

“This meet was a really good sign we’re headed in the right direction,” she said. The Jacksons now return to winter training, before diving back into action in the new year for their final dual meets, followed by the WAC Conference Championships in February.

Bailey goes big in Boston

In Boston, meanwhile, the University of Massachusettsheaded into the 2022 Terrier Invitational – a meet which saw Jake Bailey take on a characteristically distance-heavy meet lineup totaling 3600-yards of racing over the course of only three days. Despite that demanding schedule, Bailey came away from the meet with season-high performances in all events, as well as four lifetime bests.

Times of 51.04 and 1:52.82 in the 100 and 200-yard butterflywere all-time bests for the UMass sophomore, as well as being 2.83 and 10.17 seconds quicker than he’d been so far this season, respectively. Typical of a distance swimmer, Bailey also not only lowered his personal best 200-yard freestyle time (1:42.65) leading off his 800-yard freestyle relay – his first 100-yards of that swim was also the fastest 100-yard freestyle (48.13) that the sophomore has swam in his collegiate career, earning him his fourth lifetime best of the meet.

The rest of Bailey’s mid-season meet included an almost 14 second season best in the 500-yard freestyle (4:39.19), and a 16:25.25 time in the 1650-yard freestyle that saw him place 11th overall. As well as opening his team’s 800-yard freestylerelay, the former Cayman Prep student played a role in improving the team’s entry times in both their 400-yard freestyle relay (2nd leg, 46.93) and 200-yard medley relay – the latter of which saw the distance freestyle and butterfly specialist show the versatility to throw down a 27.32 on the breaststroke leg.

“We had been looking forward to our mid-season meet for a while, and it definitely showed in some big performances for the team,” Bailey said – going on to explain that the team’s ‘D’ (distance) crew have recently put greater emphasis on training volume in the pool (and less in the weights room), which they believe is beginning to pay off in their races. Next up for Bailey is a winter training trip to Florida, before he too will begin to gear up for championship time – heading to the Atlantic 10 Championships in mid-February.

Weber captains Oberlin women to victory

“I could not be more proud of my team,” Audrey Weberenthused, following a victory in the women’s standings and close-fought 2nd-placed finish on the men’s side of their 2022 Oberlin College Midseason Invite. The junior, in her first full season as a captain of the Oberlin College team, pointed to multiple new school records and top-10 all-time schoolperformances, as well as over 60 personal best times posted across the squad as an indicator of just how well their program is doing at this midpoint of the 2022-23 season,following an illness and injury-ridden start to the year.

As for her own performances, Weber threw down three for three season best times in individual events, as well as helping her team’s 200 (breaststroke leg, 32.05) and 400-yard medley (breaststroke leg, 1:12.03) and 800-yard freestyle (3rd leg, 2:08.89) relays improve on their entry times. After an eight second drop from her previous season best in the 200-yard IM, stopping the clock at 2:22.04, the team captain – formerly of Cayman Prep, and Peddie School – also claimed big lifetime bests in both the 100 (1:11.33) and 200-yard (2:37.85) breaststroke events, placing 6th and 7th respectively.

Since the Oberlin Invite, Weber and her team took on Notre Dame College and John Carroll University in a ‘tri-meet’ on Friday Dec. 2 (results yet to be released). After Christmas break, a busy month of January dual meets awaits before their NCAC (conference) Championship meet in early February.

Adapa and Henry drop season bests

At the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s (USMMA) 2022 Memorial Invite, Krishna Adapa competed alongside his Pace University teammates in their six team mid-season showdown. The junior, who is currently majoring in Business Management, raced to season bests in both the 100 (58.93) and 200-yard (2:10.64) butterfly – taking 6th place in the longer of the two events, with an improvement of almost four seconds from his previous season best. Adapa also competed in the 200-yard individual medley, clocking in at 2:17.26.According to the team schedule, the Setters have two more dual meets prior to the end of the calendar year (Dec. 9 at Southern Connecticut State University, before hosting the College of Staten Island a week later). They will then pickback up in January, in preparation for their Northeast-10 Conference Championships in February.

Racing for St. Thomas University at the 2022 Panther Invite in Florida, meanwhile, Adapa’s Stingray Swim Club teammate Liam Henry notched season best times of his own. Also posting 22.07 and 47.84 in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events (both right around his meet entry times), Henry’s best performances came in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly. After grabbing 5th place in the butterfly final with a season best 50.38, the senior’s best 200-yard freestyle time of the season so far actually came in his lead-off leg for the Bobcats’ 800-yard freestyle relay, where he fired the team off in 1:44.89 (helping them to 4th place overall). Always a sprinter at heart, Henry even took on a long-time foe – putting up a 2:07.88 in the 200-yard butterfly. The business management major (who is specializing in trade and logisticsmanagement) also played roles on St. Thomas’ 400-yard medley (butterfly leg, 50.02) and freestyle (2nd leg, 46.48)relays.

After a two-year stint at Indian River State College, this is the Triple C graduate’s final undergraduate season at St. Thomas – but with a handful more dual meets both before and after Christmas, followed by Sun Conference Championships in February and NAIA National Championships in early March, there is still much to look forward to. Henry also hopes to continue swimming after he graduates, as he weighs up options for a masters degree.

First taste of NCAA swimming for Frederick-Westerborg

Corey Frederick-Westerborg joined a strong Caribbean contingent at The University of Indianapolis this year, and has so far been embracing his new team environment.

“Being in an entirely new environment, place and team for swimming is a rather drastic change to someone who has been on the same island for their whole life,” Frederick-Westerborgsaid, continuing “but with a new team comes new friends who (have) pushed me harder than ever before.”

This new adventure seems to already be paying off for the freshman in terms of his performances, too – at the 2022 House of Champions Invitational, he swam to lifetime bests in each of his three events: dropping a tenth of a second in his 50-yard freestyle (21.58), almost half a second in the 100-yard freestyle (47.44) and 0.13 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly (51.36).

“The transition of training to taper was rather sudden,” the versatile sprinter admitted – often the case at mid-season competitions, where swimmers will go through a ‘drop taper’ to freshen up without fully resting and risking interrupting their overall training cycle. “Nonetheless, I am very happy where I am, and I look forward to my next four years here.”

Frederick-Westerborg will hit the water again after Christmas break, for another round of college dual meets before UIndygears up for their GLVC (conference) Championships, and NCAA Championships in February and March, respectively.

Across the globe

On the other side of the Atlantic, fellow freshman Jasmine Lambert-Wragg remains in training since beginning her bachelor’s degree in Biology at Bath Spa University, in the south-west of England. Bath Spa may not have a swim program of their own, but the dedicated freshman isn’t letting that stop her.

“I have Coach Darren (Mew, of Seven Mile Swimmers) send me sets for both swimming and dry land,” Lambert-Wragg explained, continuing “it’s basically a training schedule set up by me and him (sic), relying on my discipline.” The former Cayman Prep student swims as often as possible at The University of Bath’s 50-meter pool (in their state-of-the-art Sports Training Village), often for two to three hours per session – training supplemented by around five days per week in the gym.

This self-imposed training is also nothing new for the SMS swimmer. Last summer, while working at Little Cayman’s Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI), she prepared for 5 and 10-kilometer open water events by training in the sea. She hopes to return to open water training while she is back home in Cayman – understandably, the prospect of this ocean training is both less appealing and less possible whilst in England!

Further north, at the University of Birmingham, Elana Sinclair is studying and swimming her way through her third year of university.

“This season has still seen some reverberations from the setbacks that came with COVID, but it has been very rewarding getting back to hard work,” Sinclair said. “I had so much fun competing in Short Course (25-meter) BUCS Championships … swimming in the same heats as some of the biggest names in British Swimming,” she continued – the Stingray Swim Club swimmer and Cayman Prep graduate took on a grueling distance freestyle line-up, swimming all ofthe 400, 800 and 1500-meter freestyle events over the short weekend of racing in at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge pool.

“I’m excited to do it all again in February 2023,” Sinclair added – when she will compete at the Long Course (50-meter) edition of BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) Championships, the British equivalent of NCAA Championships.

Back across ‘the pond’, The University of Ottawa’s Sabine Ellison has so far this season been competing in a series ofdual meets. She explained that collegiate swimming in Canada is a little different from the UK and the USA’s seasons – according to the team’s competition schedule, they have several more dual meets in the new year before championshipmeets in February 2023.

As for the author… I currently am completing my masters degree in journalism at Stanford University, where I am training with the university swim club in preparation for my own national championship meet in 2023.

-Alex Dakers