Swimmers travel to multiplemeets, youngsters excel
Swimmers who went to Michigan:(Front) Janelle Foster. (1st row) Shaune & Brett Fraser, JodieFoster, Lizzie Haines (Back row) Laura, Ashley & Heidi Stafford,Chris Duty, Gillian Roffey and Coach Dominic Ross.
By Claire Stafford
Fourteen Cayman swimmers from the CaymanIslands travelled to Michigan at the start of Summer for a seriesof meets.
A team of 10 of the younger developing swimmers went to Holland,MI for the West Michigan Summer Classic Swim Meet. Four more teammembers travelled to compete in two meets, the Holland meet on14th July only, then to Ann Arbor to the 'Regions' higher-levelcompetition being held concurrently at the University of Michiganpool.
The ten-member team consisted of Jenny Bodden, Lizzie Haines,Laura Stafford, Shaune Fraser, Brett Fraser, Gillian Roffey, JodieFoster, Chris Duty, Ashley Stafford, and Heidi Stafford. Travellingto Ann Arbor were William Balderamos, Andrew Mackay, Kaitlyn Elphinstoneand Heather Roffey. Coaches David Kelsheimer and Dominic Rossand five chaperones accompanied the teams.
The Cayman National Song was played at the opening of each sessionof the Holland meet and the team attracted the interest of theirfellow competitors, meet performances and behaviour at the meet,and during the long and exhausting travel to and from Michigan.
The huge meet was held in a brand new $12.5 million communityfacility in the small town of Holland, near Lake Michigan andwas attended by 765 individual competitors from teams throughoutthe state. With so many competitors, the meet was run in a strictand professional way with the start of one race beginning as thelast swimmer in the previous one touched the wall.
All team members swam well and achieved personal best times, butthe definite highlight of the meet came from the younger swimmerswho performed outstanding swims. For some it was their first meetin a long course (50m) pool but they were not intimidated by thelength of the pool or the strict way the meet was run and swamto their best of their ability.
Jodie Foster, Brett Fraser, Shaune Fraser, Laura Stafford, HeatherRoffey, Kaitlyn Elphinstone, Andrew Mackay, and William Balderamosachieved top eight placements in various events. Jodie achievedtop eight placements in her age group for all of the events sheswam and gained new friends among her competitors.
Instead of the usual medals for awards, each child participatingwas given a small plaque and the top eight swimmers for each eventwere awarded engraved plates to attach to their plaques.
Meanwhile the senior swimmers were facing intense, high-levelcompetition, including from some already qualified to go to theOlympics, at the University of Michigan 'Region's' meet. Severalmid-season personal best times were achieved, despite being quite'broken down', having not yet begun to taper for the 'Far Western's' meet in Aug.
Exposure to the renowned University of Michigan swim programmeand sports facilities, followed by a Monday morning before-departuretraining session at Eastern Michigan U. rounded out their weekend.
The inspiring performances of the young swimmers highlight thebreadth of the swim programme at the Lions pool, where it is notjust the older well-known swimmers who are achieving but alsothose who are coming up through the various levels of the competitiveprogramme. Cayman's programme is limited by the size of the pool(25m) and accompanying facilities and is run at maximum capacity.
With a 50m pool in place the programme could be expanded at alllevels to produce a broader spectrum of talent from which to attaina National Team rivalling those of bigger countries. Such a facilitywould also attract more competitors from overseas teams to ourmeets and thus reduce the necessity for our swimmers to travelso regularly.
Thanks again go to Cayman Airways for their outstanding supportof the team, without which such trips would be impossible.