Riptides in Charlotte, NC and Mt Pleasant
MB Riptides swimming team in action over weekend
The Myrtle Beach Riptides swimming team competed at two different events the weekend of December 4-6. Members of the Riptides traveled to either Charlotte, NC for the New South Swimming 13-14/Senior Championship or to Mt. Pleasant, SC for the 12/Under Grand Prix #3.
NSS 13-14/Senior Invite – national championship times and records prevail!
Julia Campbell, Lauren Campbell, Megan Kingsley and Keenan Lineback made the annual journey to Charlotte, NC for their final competition of 2009. As in years past, this event has proved to be pivotal for the balance of the short-course season. And this year’s event did not disappoint with the Riptides tallying 9 national championship qualifying times, 12 team records and 31 personal best times.
Julia Campbell (13-14, St Andrews Catholic School) swam to 6 season-best times including 3 personal best times. Campbell achieved personal bests in the 100-yard Butterfly (1:06.81), 200-yard Butterfly (2:24.80) and 200-yard IM (2:25.31).
Said head coach James Smith of Campbell, “She has struggled in her best events, the Breaststroke events, but has done a phenomenal job in her other strokes, particularly Butterfly. Julia ended her 2009 year with a tremendous confidence boost for the rest of the season.”
Lauren Campbell (Senior, MB High School) earned 8 personal best times and re-qualified to the National Club Swimming Association (NCSA) Junior National Championships. In her final event of the meet, L. Campbell had to improve her previous best time in the 1650-yard freestyle by nearly 5 seconds to make the qualifying time. L. Campbell exceeded that need and turned in a 17:09.68, almost 9-seconds better than her previous best.
“Lauren had several NCSA qualifying times last year, but the q-times changed for the 2010 meet. It seems only fitting that Lauren repeated exactly as last year… qualifying in the 1650 as her first event for NCSA Championships at this meet,” said Smith.
Megan Kingsley (13-14, Conway Christian School) continues to make swimming history, particularly for the Grand Strand. Kingsley has become the youngest swimmer, male or female, to ever qualify to a USA-Swimming National Championship meet. Kingsley earned qualifying times in the 200-yard Individual Medley (2:06.02) and 200-yard Butterfly (2:03.63). In addition, Kingsley earned a USA-Swimming Junior National time in the 200-yard Backstroke (2:03.87) and re-qualified to the NCSA Junior National Championships in the 100-yard Butterfly (57.42), 100-yard Backstroke (58.09) and 200-yard freestyle (1:52.35).
“Megan continues to impress,” said Smith. “It is really difficult to put into words what Megan is doing at just 13-years old with the times she is achieving. It is all just impressive.”
Kingsley joins Keenan Lineback as the only USA-Swimming National Championship qualified swimmers, aged 18-years and younger, from the Grand Strand.
Keenan Lineback (Senior, Conway Christian School) earned 8 personal best times including a new USA-Swimming National Championship qualifying time and two NCSA Junior National Championship qualifying times. Lineback earned her USA-S National time in the 400-yard Individual Medley (4:25.19); Lineback also owns the q-time in the 400-meter Individual Medley. Lineback also re-qualified in the 200-yard Butterfly (2:06.33) and in the 1650-freestyle (17:03.40) for the NCSA Junior Nationals.
“Keenan had several best times, but her best race by far was her 400-IM. She performed each leg of the race exactly as predicted and the result was a 5-second improvement and one of the fastest times in South Carolina history for a girl” said Smith. “The reality is, she still has room to improve in this event,” continued Smith.
“Each of the girls stepped up when it mattered most for this meet. They cheered for each other and had a great deal of fun, allowing them to achieve their mid-season goals. The rest of the short-course season looks very promising,” commented Smith.
Mt Pleasant Grand Prix #3 – more records and best times!
A contingent of 18 swimmers traveled to Mt Pleasant for the third installment of the 12/Under Grand Prix Series. At meet’s end, the Riptides broke 5 team records and earned 37 personal best times.
Danielle Flaherty (10/Under) led the Riptides going 4-for-4 personal best times and 3 team records. Flaherty set the new records in the 50-yard Backstroke (40.28), 50-yard Butterfly (43.63) and 100-yard Breaststroke (1:40.06).
Jack King (10/Under) broke two team records in the 50-yard Butterfly (48.98) and 100-yard Breaststroke (1:48.03).
Andi Churchill, Connor Churchill, Ashlyn Dekleva, Ryan Eldred, Zary Gouin and Sean King each earned 3 personal best times.
Mackenzie Angwin, Shannon Eldred, Rachel Krivanek and Chloe Ladd each swam to 2 personal bests. James Angwin, Madison Fairchild, Jacob Flaherty, Henry King, Andrew Medrick and Emily Sabella each had earned a new best time and also swam several events for the very first time.
“We had only 4 disqualifications out of seventy-two swims for the entire meet, our fewest ever for this Series,” said age-group coach Justin Schreer. “
Schreer continued, “Many of the best times were improvements of 10-, 20- or even 30-seconds in the case of Maddie Fairchild, in her 200-yard freestyle.
Ebbtides coach Mary Churchill was very pleased with how the very young swimmers performed.
“The Ebbtides program [developmental level swimmers] is new to the Riptides. We were able to expand our programming to bring in younger children, as young as 5-years old, to teach them the core ‘FUN’damentals of swimming and they have done a fantastic job,” continued Churchill.
Remarked head coach James Smith, “From top to bottom, the Myrtle Beach Riptides is proving to be the most comprehensive and complete swimming organization along the Grand Strand. As head coach, I cannot be happier with how the staff is doing their job of teaching and motivating; the performances of the all the swimmers at all levels of competitive development has been terrific; and the support from the entire membership has been outstanding.”
