2013 Auburn Open
2013 Auburn Southern Region Open Championships
Four members of the Myrtle Beach-based Myrtle Beach Riptides swim team travelled to Auburn University for the 2013 Southern Region Open Championships. This was the inaugural year for the swim meet, which featured teams from Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and Ohio.
This was the first competition for the Riptides’ since the 2013 South Carolina State Championships just two weeks earlier. For some swimmers, it was the final meet of the season and the fast swimming from the State Championships just continued at Auburn University.
Chad Bateson, senior, swam to five personal best times including 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events, 200-backstroke, 200-freestyle and 400 Individual Medley.
Eddie Bateson, senior, swam to four personal best times including the 100-, 200- and 1650-freestyle events and 100-backstroke. Bateson’s times in the 200 free (1:51.5) and 1650-free (17:03.4) were new team records. And Bateson’s time in the 1650-free was also his first Speedo Senior Sectional Championship qualifying time. Senior Sectionals is the first “national” level competition.
E. Bateson now joins his brother Chad (1000-free) as first-time Senior Sectional Championship qualifiers.
Julia Campbell, senior, had one of her best meets in more than a year, swimming to six out of 7 personal best times. Campbell achieved bests in 200- and 400-IM events, 100- and 500-free events, 100-backstroke and 200-butterfly.
Barbara Long, senior, had an impressive meet, earning four personal best times in 400-IM, 50-, 200- and 500-free events. For Long, her 400-IM time of 4:51.3 and 200-free time of 2:02.1 represent best times in more than a year.
Said head coach James Smith, “The Southern Region Open was a great meet for our swimmers. The Auburn facility is very fast and among the nicer facilities in the southeast with a rich history.
“I believe it is important to expose swimmers to as many university facilities as possible in order to ‘motivate’ them to step up their training and racing.
“Auburn University has won over a dozen national championships and has produced Olympians at every Olympiad since 1976. It was really great to have Riptides’ swimmers compete and do very well at such a facility,” continued Smith.
