2013 Lowcountry Palmetto Champs!

2013 Lowcountry Palmetto Championships held on Grand Strand
The Myrtle Beach Riptides swim team hosted the 2013 Lowcountry Palmetto Championships March 22-24 at the North Myrtle Beach Aquatic and Fitness Center.  This was the second year the meet was hosted by the Riptides and was much larger than before.

According to head coach James Smith, this year’s meet hosted over 300 swimmers, up nearly 100 swimmers from 2012.  Teams from Charleston, Columbia, Florence, Hilton Head, Mount Pleasant and Myrtle Beach were in attendance.

The Riptides placed 4^th overall in the meet – 3^rd place in the girl’s division and 6^th place in the boy’s.  The Riptides were the highest placing team from the Grand Strand.

Swimmers from Riptides combined over 100 personal best times, 16 new South Carolina State Championship and 5 new team records.

Said head coach James Smith, “This was an absolutely awesome meet for the Riptides.  Every swimmer improved, swimming to new personal bests in multiple events.

“Julia Campbell, Andi Churchill, Danielle Flaherty, Walker Harwell, Barbara Long, Peyton McWhorter, Lexi Roberts and Chase Teasley each earned new South Carolina Swimming State Championship qualifying times.  Chase earned his very first SCS Championship q-time in the 200-breaststroke.

“In fact, Walker [Harwell] and Lexi [Roberts] also set new team records in the boy’s 50- and 200-freestyle events and 400-IM, and girl’s 50-free and 100-backstroke, respectively.

Smith continued, “We also had swimmers drop huge amounts in individual events.  Dayton Busse led all swimmers with the single largest improvement of nearly 34 seconds in the 100-breaststroke.  Connor Campbell, Lily Gibson-Grossman, Tucker Hendrix, Matthew Key, Kylie McWhorter and Ana Muntean each had double-digit improvements in their individual events.

“Rafael Adi, Mackenzie Angwin, Connor Churchill, Alyssa Cozart, Jordan Faircloth, Kailey Habib, Ty Kinner-Costello, Hannah McDonough, Sophia McKanna, Ethan Nechemia, Yianni Paraschos and Chloe Stampfle each earned several personal best times in their events,” Smith Said.

Rivers Chandler competed in her first meet with Riptides.  Jacob Flaherty and Jacob Sessions rounded out the squad at the Lowcountry Palmetto Championships, swimming right on their times.

The Riptides have concluded their short-course (25-yard) competition season and will take a well-deserved break.