After two weeks of unusually cold weather for June, Saturday turned out to be sunny and warm—the perfect day for the Mount Gilead Barracuda swim team to head to Loudonville for their first meet of the season against the Loudonville Stingrays and the Crestline Water Dogs.

“This has been a really rough start for us. To begin with, the MG pool did not open on time for us to begin practicing once school was out. If it had not been for the generosity of the staff of the Cardington pool, we would probably not have had a swim season. They allowed us to come down and fit in some practices when the weather allowed, so we are so grateful,” said coach Dina Snow.

“We have also had a number of kids away at various camps and on vacation, so we probably took less than half the team on Saturday,” Snow continued. “Even so, those that competed did a great job and it was just a fun day! I think the general mood was pumped up that maybe summer was finally here!! Even though we came in third due to low numbers, there were some great swims!”

First place relay finishes: the 15-18 boys 200 medley relay (Jaxon Tinch, Hayden McClelland, Nate Rabun and Griffin McClelland); the 9-10 boys 100 free relay (Ben Griffith, Paxton Colegrove, Brayden Jones and Blake Grimm); the 11-12 girls 200 free relay (Avery McClelland, Adylynn Brown, Addison Rabun and Lorelai Turner) and the 15-18 boys 200 free relay (Rabun, Tinch, H. McClelland and Nolan Hershner).

Second place relay finishes: the 15-18 girls 200 medley relay (Abby Griffith, Kendall Neal, Cassidy Irwin and Camryn Travis) and the 13-14 girls 200 free relay (Abby Griffith, Makayla Carlisle, Camryn Travis and Kayla Young).

First place individual finishes: Emma Marquis, 25 free; Ben Griffith, 50 free and 50 back; Abby Griffith, 50 free and 50 back; Nate Rabun, 50 free and 50 fly; Carter Marquis, 25 back and Paxton Colegrove, 25 breast.

Second place individual finishes: Abby Griffith, 100 IM; Carter Marquis, 25 free; Brayden Jones, 25 free; Avery McClelland, 50 free and 50 breast; Jaxon Tinch, 50 fly; Emma Marquis, 25 back; Adylynn Brown, 50 back; Cassidy Irwin, 50 back and Brayden Jones, 25 breast.

Rounding out the scoring with third place finishes were Cassidy Irwin, 50 free; Jaxon Tinch, 50 free; Blake Grimm, 25 back; Addison Rabun, 50 back; Aaron Rabun, 50 back; Camryn Travis, 50 breast; Kendall Neal, 50 breast and Nolan Hershner, 50 breast.

Also competing were Gabriella Bateman, Harper McClelland, and Lucille Jarvis.

The team is made up of swimmers ages 7-18 from all around Morrow County and even a few from Marion. Coached by Dina Snow, with assistant coaches Robin Conrad and Taylor Robinson, the Barracudas compete in the ASAC league, which includes Crestline, Ontario, Loudonville, Upper Sandusky, Shelly Acres and Willard.

Information received from Dina Snow.