A small but mighty group of swimmers braved the elements to compete in the Loudonville Bahama Mama invitational on Sunday, July 7.
“This meet was scheduled for Friday night, but after a long drive and many delays due to thunder, we had to head back home. Due to the raindate, many swimmers who originally registered were not able to participate. On top of this, we had a regular meet scheduled at Willard on Saturday morning. The swim families really put in the miles this weekend,” said coach Dina Snow. “Joel Conrad was a big winner in this meet. He won all five events he swam, and also set the meet record in all five! He works hard and is very talented, so we were all pretty excited!
“I was very proud of all the swimmers who competed,” continued Snow. “One of our swimmers, Shyla Pruden, came along just to cheer for a teammate, and then she volunteered to swim butterfly in a relay to take the place of a missing swimmer! We also had an eight-year old swimmer, Chloe Bolton, swim up an age group to try the 100 IM! That took some courage! She finished that race and did well in her other events, too. Connor Robinson got a second place medal in his 25 free and a third place medal in the 25 breast. His sister Trinity took third in the 25 free in her age group as well. Other swimmers competing were Anthony Bump, Carson Mowery, Taylor Robinson, Nate Rabun, Danielle Pohlkotte, Kendall Neal and Tatum Neal.”
As mentioned above, the team competed against the Willard Waves Saturday in a regular season dual meet. “Willard has a nice facility, but for some reason, their competition pool is only 18 yards long,” said Snow. “Some of our swimmers tried out some new events since they knew it wouldn’t be as hard to finish. We lost to the Waves, but the swimmers had some good races.”
Finishing in first place in the individual events were Connor Robinson, 25 free and 25 breast; Joel Conrad, 100 IM, 50 fly and 50 breast; Chloe Bolton, 25 fly; Zane Grandstaff, 25 back; Hawke Littell, 25 fly and 25 breast and Carson Mowery, 50 fly.
Coming in second were Hudson Hand, 25 free; Chloe Bolton, 25 free and 25 breast; Tyler Knight, 100 IM; Luke Frazier, 100 IM; Zane Grandstaff, 25 free; Hawke Littell, 25 free; Alina Van Horn, 25 fly; McKenzie West, 25 back; Ben Griffith, 25 back; Eric Mowery, 50 back and Mason Kidwell, 50 breast.
Bringing home third place were Trinity Robinson, 25 free; Eric Mowery, 50 free; Ben Griffith, 25 free; Brice Haughn, 50 free and 50 breast; Adylynn Brown, 25 back; Connor Robinson, 25 back; Abigail Griffith, 25 back; Elias Bulkowski, 25 back; Niles Bush, 50 back; Keana Littell, 50 back; Nate Rabun, 50 back; Wesley Bush, 50 breast and Sammie West, 50 breast.
“Our relays did very well, so that is always fun to watch the kids work as a team,” said Snow.
First place relay winners were the 8-under girls medley (Adylynn Brown, Avery McClelland, Chloe Bolton and McKenzie West); the 9-10 boys medley (Elias Bulkowski, Evan Irons, Hawke Littell and Max Bulkowski); the 13-14 boys medley (Nate Rabun, Luke Frazier, Joel Conrad and Wesley Bush); the 8-under girls free relay (Adylynn Brown, Trinity Robinson, McKenzie West and Emma Marquis); the 8-under boys free relay (Connor Robinson, Ben Griffith, Hudson Hand and Zane Grandstaff) and the 9-10 boys free relay (Elias Bulkowski, Aaron Rabun, Hawke Littell and Evan Irons).
The following relays scored second place points: the boys 11-12 medley and free relay (Niles Bush, Brice Haughn, Carson Mowery and Griffin McClelland); the 13-14 girls medley (A’Lesha White, Tatum Neal, Keana Littell and Kamry Grandstaff); the 13-14 girls free relay (Shyla Pruden, Kendall Neal, Tatum Neal and Keana Littell); the 13-14 boys free relay (Luke Frazier, Nate Rabun, Wesley Bush and Hayden McClelland); the 15-18 boys medley relay (Eric Mowery, Sammie West, Tyler Knight and Mason Kidwell) and the 15-18 boys free relay (Eric Mowery, Tyler Knight, Mason Kidwell and Joel Conrad).
The following swimmers also added points to the team total: Luke Frazier, Taylor Robinson, Kendall Neal; and the 11-12 girls free relay (Cassidy Irwin, A’lesha White, Ellie Rhea and Danielle Pohlkotte).
The swimmers will swim against Ontario on July 10 and finish the season at the ASAC championship meet held at Loudonville on July 13.
