Stingray Swim sent a team of ten athletes to St Petersburg, Florida to compete in the St Petersburg Aquatics 4^th of July Long Course Swim Meet.

The St Petersburg Aquatics Team (SPA) is a highly competitive programme which has six of its swimmers, between the ages of 11 and 14 years ranked in the top 10 in the US this past year including three number one finishes. This competition challenged Stingray’s swimmers and Coach Andy Copley felt the team rose to the challenge quite admirably saying this about the team’s experience, “”Stingray is in a rebuilding phase and this past weekend was a good start, but there is a long way to go. The kids are swimming fast, the coaches are motivated and refreshed, and everybody is working to turn the ship around. It’s a very exciting environment at the Lion’s Pool right now. I’m lucky to be a part of it.”

“Stingray Swim Club is extremely proud of all our swimmers achievements at the St Pete’s Meet,” said Stingray President Brenda McGrath. “Out of 68 events competed in, 20 were events which the athletes had not previously competed in and 30 were PBs – where PB means Personal Best and references an athletes going faster in an event than they have before. We also had a number of top 10 finishes and must give special mention to our Girls 11-12 Medley Relay Team (Ella Plunkett, Sarah Jackson, Jayde Solomon and Katie Klein) who placed third in that event.”

Team Manager Melanie Solomon was delighted with the team’s success and commended both the swimmers, Coach Andy and the parents: “This meet was a great experience for our swimmers and our parents. Our Senior swimmers set a great example for our younger swimmers and they all showed great responsibility with their approach to warm ups, staying in the shade and remaining hydrated. It was fun to have swimmers from Camana Bay, who were also at the meet, to cheer for too. When the meet was finished we took the opportunity to visit a swim store so our swimmers could upgrade their training equipment and at the very end we had a great team dinner and outing to see Spiderman at the Imax Theater.”

The full team which travelled, representing Stingray Swim Club was: Andrew Smilley, Alex McCallum, Iain McCallum, Kyle Fraser, Ashley Theaker, Jonathan Key, Jayde Solomon, Katie Klein, Sarah Jackson and Ella Plunkett.

“I would also like to thanks Melanie Solomon for her excellent job as Tour Manager. Like all of Stingray’s Directors she  is a volunteer; she has a full time job and is the mother of two extremely active young ladies – who are also swimmers – and we appreciate the hours of time that she donates to swimming, and to Stingray, on an ongoing basis. There is still a great deal of exciting swimming action to come this summer: the government swim camps are taking place; the Stingrtay Swim Club Camp will take place August 13-17^th; founding Stingray members Shaune

and Brett Fraser compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London; members Geoffrey and Lara Butler are competing in the British Nationals this summer and brothers Alex and Iain McCallum will be competing in the 1st FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships, being held in Canada in August 16-19^th 2012.

For more information on Stingray Swim Club  or if you want information on the Stingray Swim Club Camp contact [email protected] or visit our website www.caymanswimming.com .

Photo Credit:  Stingray Swim Club – SSC