While Tennessee sophomore Jordan Crooks was delivering history-making performances at the SEC Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, his younger sister, Olympian Jillian Crooks, returned home to participate in the Cayman Islands National Swimming Championships at the Camana Bay Aquatic Centre.  

The event brought together approximately 200 swimmers, including two talented Chinese swimmers, Ziyang Zhang and Zicheng Wang, coached by former Cayman swim coach, Dave Kelsheimer. 

Jillian was dominant throughout the four-day event, winning gold in the 50m, 100m, and 200m freestyle events, the 50m and 200m backstroke, and the 50m and 100m butterfly.

The dominance was confirmed by her national and CIASA record-breaking performances in the 50m backstroke, 100m butterfly, and 50m free. Only a spectacular finish and touch out by Sierrah Broadbelt – still only 14 years old –  in the 200m butterfly kept Crooks from a perfect weekend.

The fact that Broadbelt needed a record-breaking performance of her own to defeat Crooks shows the current upward trajectory of Cayman Swimming. For good measure, Broadbelt raced to another record in the 50m butterfly in the 13-14-year-old age category.

Carifta qualifiers

‘Nationals’ are the last qualifying event before team selection for the upcoming 2023 Carifta Swimming Championships that will be held in Curacao in April.

Connor Macdonald (CBAC) effectively punched his ticket to Carifta with a 20-second personal best swim in the opening event, the 1500m freestyle. 

Connor will likely be joined by CBAC teammates, Lucy Butler, Luke Higgo, Chase Watson and Gabriel Bispath, who all impressed in their qualifying swims. SMS swimmers Dominic Hilton and Tate Hilton, along with Danny Kish, fresh off their meet performances, are all expected to board the plane bound for the southern Caribbean in six weeks.

Lev Fahy (CBAC), Harper Barrowman and Kaitlyn Sullivan (SMS) all made the qualifying times for Carifta. Fahy was outstanding while sweeping the 11 races he entered in the boys 11-12 age group. Barrowman won both the women’s 800m and 1500m freestyle events. Sullivan struck gold in the 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke races in the 15-17 age category.

The final Carifta team will be announced on March 6.

Veterans entertain crowds

Four nights of finals provided great entertainment for the standing-room-only crowd that attended. Zhang and Wang, along with our veteran swimmers James Allison, Will Sellars and Jordan Lisle of SMS, Thomas Ferguson and Tate Marr of CBAC, and Stingray Swim Club’s Aidan Van der Touw competed spiritedly during the event.

Tight finishes in the breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle races kept the fans loud and boisterous. 

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