Stingray Swim Club competed in Jamaica last week in the FINA sanctioned Walter Rodgers Age Group Swimming Championships.
The 15 Stingray swimmers were joined by two members of the Camana Bay Aquatic Club as well as coach Paul Swaby-Ebanks, Team Manager Derrick Westerborg and a number of parents. The youngsters represented Cayman swimming admirably both on deck, in the pool and in the stands in Kingston.
With competition from 16-19 February, Stingray swam a combined 111 personal best times, with each swimmer contributing a minimum of four to that total.
Individual and team accolades are many, with some of the highlights including four swimmers adding their names to those under consideration for the 2012 Cayman
Islands CARIFTA team by attaining the relevant consideration times. They were Cole Morgan (100 metres backstroke, 1 minute 14.30 seconds “A”), Alice Narborough (50m free, 31.56 seconds “A”), Jonathan Key (50m free, 34.02 seconds “BB”) and Kyle Fraser (50m free, 28.79 seconds “A”).
– Two Stingray records fell, both to Corey Westerborg in the Boys U10 who broke his own 50m free record with a 39.30 seconds and also broke the 200 Individual Medley records set in 2003 by Alex McCallum, lowering it by an astounding 25 seconds to 3:52.96.
– Stefanie Boothe swam her first “A” time and Jayde Solomon compiled five “BB” time standards as well as a third place finish in the 200m back.
– Iain Macrae continued his steady climb, dropping time in four of his events and posting four top eight finishes and Ella Plunkett had an astounding eight personal best times and led off the girls 11-12 bronze medal winning medley relay team with a solid backstroke leg.
– Andrew Smilley, the veteran of the team, added seven personal bests to the team total as well as seven top eight points scoring finishes.
There were also a number of swimmers who were swimming overseas and in a 50 metre pool for the first time: Wunyae Crawford, Liam Henry, Alex Dakers, Sarah Jackson and Lauren Williams all competed hard, took on new events, earned points for the team with top eight finishes and achieved official BB times.
Camana Bay Aquatic Club’s veteran Danielle Boothe and Rory Barrett who competed in a 50 metre pool for the first time did well.
Boothe set two meet records in the 50m breast and 400IM and finished solidly in all her events. Barrett achieved top eight finishes in the 100m breast, 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle and was only half a second away from achieving an “A” time in the 50m freestyle.
Barrett also added his name to the list of CARIFTA hopefuls by reaching the necessary consideration times.
“The Camana Bay Aquatic Club is very proud of Danielle and Rory’s achievements in Jamaica,” said Camana Bay Aquatic Club President, Jeffrey Wight. “Danielle’s hard work this season has paid off with fantastic results at the meet and we wish her the very best as she represents Jamaica at the CARIFTA Games. Rory rose to the occasion and performed extremely well for his first time at a long course meet. We are very grateful to the Stingray Swim Club for their support of our swimmers in Jamaica.”
With the 2012 CARIFTA Games in the Bahamas from 12-15 April, Cayman’s younger swimmers are training hard, focusing on achieving FINA approved qualifying times at the Pete Ribbins Memorial Swim Meet which starts on Wednesday – hosted at the Lions Aquatic Centre by the Stingray Swim Club.
“We could not be prouder of all our swimmers,” said Stingray President Brenda McGrath who was at the airport to meet the team. “They swam hard, had fun and represented the very best of Cayman Swimming while they were in Jamaica. It was great to have swimmers from Camana Bay Aquatic Club there too and we are hopeful that as both clubs become more settled that there will be other opportunities for us to travel together, representing not just our clubs but most importantly the Cayman Islands internationally.” .
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