The Trail Stingrays were the consummate hosts at the Trail Aquatic Centre on the weekend as they placed second overall with some great performances in the pool.
“We swam very well in our home meet,” said Stingrays coach Samme Beatson. “The personal best times were too numerous to count with some swimmers taking up to 45 seconds off in an individual event.”
With a large contingent, Castlegar was the top team with 618 points, while Trail placed second with 15 fewer swimmers than the Castlegar team. This gives the Stingrays an average of 20 points per swimmer; the equivalent of placing second in all four events.
Nicole Merry and Diego Greenwood captured silver in Div 5 Girls and Boys respectively. Josie Dunham placed third overall in Girls Div. 1, while Reid Dunham placed third in Div. 4. Josh Ballarin swam to bronze in Boys Division 5, Elijah Grebe came second in Div. 6.
All of the coaches also placed this weekend with Jennifer Chung nabbing second in the open category, and Maddie Green coming third, while head coach Beatson claimed silver in Div 8. Chung, a former Times student reporter, set two meet records, smashing the previous 200 Individual Medley record of 3:18:92 by over 30 seconds with a time of 2:44:78. She also eclipsed the 100-m breaststroke previous best with a 1:24:03 swim.
Rookie racers Marco Santano, Savana Causey, Sienna Shields-Strong and Nate Shields-Strong swam in their first home meet and all swam exceptionally well, added Beatson.
Next up for the Stingrays is a swim meet in Creston this weekend followed by the Colville, Wash. meet the following weekend.