Nineteen Melville Mantas (MM) travelled to Lab West to compete against the Northern Lights Swim Club (NLSC) for the right to represent Labrador at the 2012 Summer Games being held in Carbonear, Aug. 18-21.
There are six female and six male position 11-14 years old, six female and six male positions 15-18 available on the Labrador swim team.
Competition started early Saturday morning and the first event was the 50-yard Freestyle and that event set the tone for the remainder of the Games trials.
There were 17 girls competing for six positions in the 11-14 year old division and it went right down to the last event Saturday evening. The girls who made the team are: Sarah Barry 100pts NLSC, Tiffany Atkins 94pts NLSC, Kayleigh Casmey 83pts NLSC, Jaydah Keats79pts MM, Megan Hanrahan 73pts MM, Madison Janes 73pts MM. So the Mantas placed three swimmers in that division.
There were 10 girls competing for six positions in the 15-18 year old division and the results couldn’t have been closer. The girls who made the team are: Alexandra Morrison 100pts MM, Karley Cranford 88pts NLSC, Allison Wensmen 84pts NLSC, Demara Pafford 82pts NLSC, Dorinda Lawlor 73pts NLSC, Olivia Winsor 68pts MM. The Mantas placed another two swimmers on the team.
The boys 15-18 division was all Mantas: Matthew Pardy 97pts MM, Jonny Chubbs 94pts MM, Bradley Baker 82pts, Matthew Gillett couldn’t compete because of sickness and was placed on the team. The boys 11-14 Division results as follows: Justin Frampton 100pts NLSC, Jacob Cabot 88pts MM, Colin Mugford 80pts MM.
So the Melville Mantas filled 11 of the possible 19 positions on the Labrador swim team headed to the NL Summer Game.
The Mantas have been out of the water since the 19th March and only got back in water, 11/2 weeks before the Games Trials but had a great meet! They stayed true to their fitness training and worked out a minimum of 3 times a week and that training paid off: Avery Brown 5/6 personal best times, Rachel Goudie 4/5 personal best times, Laura Harvey 3/6 personal best times, Frankie Leonard 3/5 personal best times, Kylee Lyall 4/5 personal best times, Emily Snow 4/6 personal best times. We also had five of our youngest swimmers travel over to compete and did exceptionally well: Kelsey Hanrahan, Morgan Janes, Megan Mugford, Paige Langlois, Audrey Langlois and Johanna Taylor.
The Mantas have six swimmers qualified to compete in St. John’s at the Provincial Long Course (50 meter pool) Championships, the weekend of June 1 and have two swimmers, right now, qualified for Atlantic Swim Championships in Halifax on July 5.
Kerry Rideout, head coach of the Melville Mantas Swim Team, is technical chairperson for swimming at the NL Summer Games. We are well represented.
