Swim Club had an incredibly successful swim meet in Jamaica this past weekend and the attached provides highlights of the four session meet.

Stingray Swim Club competed in the Capri Sun Christmas Open in Kingston, Jamaica December 14-16th and 14 swimmers’ commitment to training was rewarded with 71 Personal Bests (PBs), 25 medals (top 3 finishes) and 55 top 8 finishes. Arriving home in Cayman just after midnight on Sunday 16th, Monday morning training the next day was cancelled but swimmers were back in the pool on Tuesday!

“Swimming requires a consistent, year round commitment to training,” commented Stingray Swim Club Coach Andy Copley. “In September the swimmers set goals for December and we’ve used these as focal points in training. The kids worked hard, earned their success and I’m very pleased with the outcome. Gotta keep moving though. Time to put this one in the bank and look forward to our next set of goals for 2013.”

The Meet was held over three days with four sessions (Saturday saw a morning and an afternoon session). Every Session had its share of high points for the team such as in Session One when, after an early start to a challenging travel day, Stingray swimmers opened their account in Jamaica in fine style: 14 swimmers, 12 PBs, medals and a meet record.

Samantha Bailey swam a superbly paced race to take the girls 11/12yrs 100m backstroke title in a new meet record of 1:17.4 whilst Catriona Macrae raced to a lifetime best of 1:13.0 to take the 13/14yrs 100m backstroke. Adding to the Day One Backstroke achievements Alex McCallum swam to a lifetime best of 1:04.4 to clinch silver and Cole Morgan dropped 2 seconds to secure bronze in the 13/14yrs 100m backstroke with a AAA time (1:06.4). Andrew Smiley concluded the evening with victory in the 1500m freestyle in 19:05.

Over the three days multiple CARIFTA qualifying times were achieved; new meet records set; a CIASA Long Course record set by Catrionae Macrae in the 50m Backstroke with a time of 33.84 – concluding a hat trick best times in the backstroke events; and bringing the meet to a resounding close, Alex McCallum took down the meet record in the 400 Freestyle, swimming a time of 4:20.07. Not only did Alex break the meet record and swim a personal best by over 15 seconds, he also qualified for the Loughborough University Swim Team.

The Stingray Swim club Team that travelled to Jamaica was: Samantha Bailey, Stefanie Boothe, Sarah Jackson, Jonathan Key, Katie Klein, Catriona Macrae, Alex McCallum, Iain McCallum, Cole Morgan, Ella Plunkett, Hayley Roulstone, Andrew Smilley, Jayde Solomon and Ashley Theaker with Coach Andy Copley and Team Manager Vicki Girling.

Next up for Stingray Swim Club athletes – an Inter Squad Christmas Meet; in January a Back in the Water Burner and then a Sprint Meet and in February swimmers from all levels will be travelling to Nassau, Bahamas to take part in a two day meet hosted by the Barracuda Swim Club.

The Stingray Swim Club (SSC), a non-profit club, is run by its elected Board of Directors which meets each month. SSC is a year round competitive swim team offering high quality professional coaching and technique instruction for all ages and abilities. SSC’s goal is to provide every member an opportunity to improve swimming skills and achieve success at his or her level of ability, from novice to international competitor.

For additional information on each session’s highlights you can check the news section of the SSC website at:

http://www.caymanswimming.com/News.jsp?_tabid_=12315&team=iscisssc

Also available on the News section are highlights from the Plymouth Leander Open Meet where both Geoffrey and Lara Bulter performed extremely well. There are also additional news items on this meet on the CIASA site in the News section www.ciasa.ky

Organisers said it was great to have SSC athletes competing on two sides of the Atlantic!