The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THERE were a number of swimmers who did the qualifying standards for both the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships (CISC) and the Bahamas Swimming Federation’s Royal Bank of Canada National Swimming Championships at the Team ORCA Post Carifta Invitational over the weekend.

The two-day meet, which got caught in the furor of the second Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium on Saturday, was dominated by the Barracuda Swim Club with 4,504 points. The Dolphins Swim Club got second with 1,798, followed by Team ORCA with 1,752.

Swift Swimming came in fourth with 1,553, while Alpha Aquatics was fifth with 889. The Sea Waves got 263 and the St Anne’s Bluewaves rounded out the field with 44.

There were no high point winners selected, but ORCA’s head coach Shawn Neely said the swimmers all came out and performed exceptionally well.

“The meet went very well this weekend. For the most part, I think a lot of the swimmers swum very well,” Neely said. “A lot of the swimmers coming off Carifta swum very well. I just noticed that a lot of the younger athletes also performed very well. They dropped a lot of their times and we had a lot of cuts for CISC and the nationals.”

The CISC is scheduled to be held at the Betty Kelly Kenning Swim Complex June 29 to July 2.

The meet, which is expected to attract a large number of countries from the region, will come on the heels of the RBC National Swim Championships, scheduled for June 23-26.

The ORCA meet was the first to be hosted since the BSF’s 36-member team returned home from the Carifta Swim Championships in Martinique where the Bahamas relinquished its double championship crown to Guadeloupe by placing second overall.

This is the fifth year that ORCA has put on the meet and Neely said it couldn’t come at a better time because it provided an opportunity for the swimmers to get back in sync against the Carifta Swim Championships and prepare for the international travel that will take place over the next few weeks.

“Our club is growing and my parental support is awesome as they assist in any which way is needed or is possible to ensure that the meet comes off and that the club is able to do a lot of things that we would not normally be able to do as a typical club,” he said.

The club, which got started in 2009, has grown from just around 15 to at least 50 in the programme.

“I’m very pleased with where we are,” Neely said. “The last two years we have gotten better, we put our first swimmer on the Carifta team last year and we had two swimmers on the Carifta team this year.

Last year, Jolise Newbold made the team and this year we had Madison Mortimer and Jamilah Hepburn.

“So we’ve done very well. We are hoping to put at least 4-5 swimmers on the CISC team, which will be another bonus for us.”

Next weekend, Neely said ORCA will be travelling to the meet in Miami, Florida. A number of the other clubs are also expected to participate in the meet.

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