Stingray Swim Club dazzled Florida’s junior swimming scene.
Some 14 club members recently travelled to Sarasota to compete in the Sarasota YMCA Sharks Kent B. Holdren Swim meet, bringing home a trophy, medals, ribbons, new club records and a multitude of personal bests.
The Sharks is an award-winning swim club with strong competitive age group swimming and a senior programme which produces Olympians. The Stingray swimmers, some of whom were swimming in a 50m pool for the first time, competed hard and were incredible ambassadors for Cayman swimming.
“Stingray Swim Club is extremely proud of all our swimmers achievements at the SYS Sharks Memorial Meet in Sarasota,” commented Stingray President Brenda McGrath. “Of particular note are Iain Macrae, who won a silver medal in the Boys Under-12 200m Breaststroke in a time of 3:57.84 and Corey Westerborg, who won four silvers in the Boys U8 50m Freestyle, at 37:25; 50m
Backstroke at 47:45; 50m Butterfly at 47:66 and 50m Breaststroke at 54:62.”
There were also five new Stingray records set, all in the U8 Age Group. Westerborg broke Sean Brodericks’ record for 200m Freestyle of 4:00.59, set in 2004 with a new time of 3:28.62. Jonathon DeBruyne’s 1998 50m Backstroke record was broken with Westerborg’s new time of 47:45 and Corey lowered his own 50m Freestyle record of 39:30 set in Jamaica in February 2012 to 37:25. The most exciting new record which Corey set on this trip, however, was in the 50m Butterfly.
This record was set in 1998, with a time of 49:50 and was held by current Cayman Islands Olympic Swimmer and lifetime Stingray Swim Club member Brett Fraser – the new record is 47:66.
The fifth record came in the U8 Girls by six year-old Marisa Poole. Marisa broke Jellian Major’s 2003 record of 2:27.09 in the 100m Breaststroke with a new record time of 2:26.10.
Rounding out the accolades is the U8 Boys High Points, as the second place finish by Westerborg brought home the trophy.
Swimmers competing in the 50m pool for the first time were Alison Jackson, Jake Bailey and Krishna Adapa, who all rose to the occasion. Alison Jackson, swimming in the Girls U10, missed the Stingray 50m backstroke record by just 0.27 of a second and is determined to ‘take it’ next chance she gets. Jake Bailey pulled in personal bests in his events and Adapa, who only started swimming competitively in February of this year, showed good determination.
Team Manager Derrick Westerborg was delighted with the team’s success and commended both the swimmers and the Coaches: “This meet was a great experience for our swimmers and our parents. It was a large meet, with some of the events requiring eight or nine heats. With an eight-lane pool, that translates to some 72 swimmers in an event.
“We had both junior and senior swimmers at the meet and they all showed personal responsibility and accountability in their approach to their participation. We had 64 personal bests overall from 14 swimmers who swam 91 events, a great accomplishment. The Sarasota Sharks are good hosts – this is a competitive but fun meet and we look forward to going back again next year. The club is grateful to coaches Marie and Charlotte, who were able to step in and accompany the team on this meet. They were on deck for 11-hour days on Saturday and Sunday but found time to give each swimmer one-on-one time prior to their races and a constructive post event overview each time.”
The full team which travelled and represented Stingray Swim Club was: Marisa Poole, Corey Westerborg, Alison Jackson, Jake Bailey, Krishna Adapa, Liam Henry, Jonathan Anderson, Sarah Jackson, Samantha Bailey, Iain Macrae, Alex Dakers, Wunyae Crawford, Lauren Williams and Andrew Smilley.
“I am extremely grateful to Derrick Westerborg for his role as tour manager,” concluded President Brenda. “The swimmers always enjoy his trips and they have lots of fun. A big special thanks as well to comanager Albert Anderson, coach Marie and coach Charlotte of AAP Coaching who accompanied the team and spent three full days pacing the swim deck. The club is extremely grateful to all involved and looks forward to the next overseas meet in July.”
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