The sun shone, the Pirates came and swimmers hit the pool in droves at the Lions Aquatic Centre.
A traditional Pirates Week Meet, the Mike Lockwood Memorial saw records and Personal Best Times set over the four days of competition. In the past the Stingray Swim Club had welcomed visiting teams from overseas; this time it was just one swimmer in Matthew Whelan from Virginia. Whelan made quite an impression setting a pool record in the Boys’ 9-10 100 metre Freestyle.
The meet is named after the late Mike Lockwood, an avid supporter of both swimming and Pirates Week. His widow Ella Kay gave the opening prayer on Saturday morning while CARIFTA swimmer Danielle Booth sang the national song.
In the pool there were a series of great swims and while the eye-catching achievement of 11 records being broken was fantastic, each coach used the racing to gauge the progress of their swimmers. Coach Marie Sheperd was thrilled that every swimmer in her group swam personal best times and many of them will be rewarded with a move to a higher group soon.
Coach Paula Swaby asked her swimmers to aim for CARIFTA qualifying times while national swim coach Dominic Ross looked for excellence and improvement.
Lara Butler was the undoubted star of the meet with her high point being the 400 metre Individual Medley which left her family and coach with a pleasant if unexpected headache. In breaking the club, pool and national record, Lara also unexpectedly qualified for the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Dubai. Tickets will now have to be bought and travel plans made but all in all congratulations are in order for Butler.
Then again Butler had loads of competition throughout from Danielle Booth, who ran her close many times.
Also developing a healthy rivalry are Lara’s “little” brother Geoffrey and Seiji Groome who battled it out all meet.
The duo arguably served up the best race when Geoffrey won the 400 metre Freestyle by a millisecond.
The competition among the six and under category was hard but the smiles were there. Notable mention for the four year-olds who took part were Natalie Majors, Gabriella Royston, Sofia Watler and Lachlin Lambert. Biggest props went to Corey Westerborg, who continued his total domination of the age group. Undoubtedly many young boys will look forward to January when he turns seven.
In total 14 swimmers achieved personal bests in Sam Bailey, Lauren Hew, Jona Narborough, Liam Majors, Samantha Rowland, Ocean Costa, Flyn Hope, Joshua Ebanks-Brown, Sarah Jackson, Iain Macrae, Stefanie Boothe, Kavanagh Lambert, Cole Morgan and David Lee. In particular Ashley Theaker achieved a qualifying CARIFTA time and Ella Plunkett took five seconds off her breaststroke time.
The Mike Lockwood Memorial was also a time to say good-bye to two swimming families. Emily England and her family are moving to England while Sabine and Sophie Ellison (who took a high-points award during the meet) are going to Malaysia.
Stingray Swim Club would like to thank all of the volunteers, coaches and swimmers who made the event a success.
For more information call 925-5410 or visit our website at www.caymanswimming.com
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