Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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Barracudas win another RBC Nationals By DAHALIA SMITH ~ NG Sports Reporter ~ dahalia@nasguard.com: Over 20 national records were set, and the Barracudas Swim Club successfully defended its Bahamas Swimming Federation (BSF) National Championship, winning its fourth straight this past weekend at the Betty Kelly Kenning National Aquatics Center. The 38th RBC Swimming Nationals wrapped up with the closing ceremony on Saturday night. The Barracudas won by a landslide over six other clubs, accumulating 2,152.5 points over the second place finishers, Sea Bees Swim Club, which tallied 1,369 points. The Sea Bees improved upon its third place finish from last year. Finishing third overall was Swift Swimming with 1,326 points, the Dolphins were fourth with 745.5 points, the YMCA Waverunners out of Grand Bahamas were fifth with 369 points, Freeport Aquatics ended up sixth with 29 points and the Flamingos Swimming Club finished seventh with two points. One of the Barracudas' leading swimmers Matthew Lowe said: "Good representation and hard work by the 12-and-under swimmers significantly contributed to the overall victory." Another closing ceremony highlight was the announcement of the high point award winners, given to the swimmers who accumulated the most individual points for their teams in their respective categories. The Dolphins' Chadeau Wilson won the high point award in the 15-and-over boys division, scoring 75 points while Mancer Roberts was the runner-up, totaling 66.5 points. In the girls 15-and-over girls division, the Barracudas' Alicia Lightbourne scored 75 points for the title and teammate Ariel Weech was the runner-up with 65 points. It was Olympians Alana Dillette and Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace who broke some of the more notable records in this division though. Dillette set new speed marks in the 50 meters (m) Back and Butterfly events in times of 30.06 and 27.62 seconds respectively. It broke her own national records of 30.34 and 28.50 seconds respectively. In the 13-14 girls division, Bria Deveaux, representing the Barracudas, scored 88 points for the high point trophy, and teammate Je'Nae Saunders tallied 72 as the runner-up. Lowe won the 13-14 title, scoring 88 points and the Sea Bees' Laron Morley totaled 64 points for second position. Swift Swimming's Laura Morley received top honors in the 11-12 girls age group, tallying 88 points while Jacinda Williams scored 57 points for the Dolphins Swim Club and was second. In the 9-10 girls age group, Swift Swimming's Simone Sturrup was the highest scorer with 82 points while the Sea Bees Tremaine Allen contributed 77 points as the runner-up. The Barracudas Clement Bowe emerged as the top scorer in the boys 9-10 age group with 88 points while teammate Gershwin Greene was the runner-up with 54 points. The Sea Bees' Celia Campbell totaled 61 points for the Sea Bees in the eight-and-under girls age group and Swift Swimming's Lilly Higgs had the second most individual points, 47. In the eight-and-under boys age group, Swift Swimming's Peter Morley scored 52 points as the top scorer while the Barracuda's Izaak Bastian posted the second most in his group with 45. BSF President Algernon Cargill described the nationals as successful with the turnout being higher than the 37th edition, even with last year being an Olympic year. He thanked Royal Bank for its continued monetary support over the past 26 years. Also, this year, RBC is the sponsor of the Academic All-Bahamas Swimming Team Awards, presented to those who maintained a grade point average of 3.5 and above and exhibited outstanding performances in the pool throughout the 2008/09 season. Those named to that team include Temple Christian Academy's Khes Adderley, Tremaine Allen, Tyrique Cox, Jared Fritzgerald and Malik Hepburn from Xavier's Primary School, Kingsway Academy's Meshach Roberts, Cedric Bowe, Xenia Cox and Christina Garraway from Queen's College. St. Andrew's Shayla Campbell, Jenna Chaplin, Janae Davis, Zoe Galanis, Lauren Glinton, Gabrielle Green, Laura Morley and Zach Moses, Armando Moss and Riquel Rolle from St. Augustine's College and Auburn University's Alana Dillette, who was a part of a four-member swimming team from The Bahamas to the Beijing Olympics last year. Monday, June 29, 2009