The six and under freestyle relay of Karsyn Botkin, Jackson Hopkins, Cole Owen, and Liam Wells earned a win in the first event of the evening. The youngest members of the team continue to swim well in the freestyle events: swimmers Josh Hodges, Christian Lambert, and Matthew Wright dropped 5.31 seconds, 22.99 seconds, and 7.59 seconds respectively. On the girl’s side, Anna Pfeuffer dropped 8.47 seconds in her 25 meter freestyle. Hodges went on to have another huge drop in the 25 meter backstroke and fellow six and under Cole Owen improved in both events to earn his first and second gold time of the season. Owen wasn’t the only new gold swimmer of the evening, 10-year-old Rhett Jones earned a gold time in the 100 meter IM and 11-year-old Hannah Brown dropped almost 2 seconds to go gold in the 50 meter backstroke.
Improvements were definitely a family affair this week: Sisters Emma and Olivia Strickland both improved over 3 seconds in their respective 50 meter freestyle events. Brother and sister pairs Paul and Emily Cumiskey and Mitch and Maddie Messier all earned improvements in backstroke. In the same set of breaststroke races, Jonathan and Hannah Corbin and Anthony and Annabelle Harlowe all improved. These were just some of the sibling improvements throughout the night.
There were also many “firsts” accomplished by the Makos: Aaron Johnson swam his first IM. Liam Wells finished his first 25 meter butterfly. Rachel Scopelliti competed in the 25 meter breaststroke for the first time with the Makos. There were many great accomplishments throughout the evening by both teams and many close races. The final score of 555.5 FAST to 506.5 BHSC indicates a tie in an event which a testament to all of the close races of the evening. The Makos look to improve to 2 – 1 next weekend when they host Forest Lakes Swim Team at the Estes Athletic Center in Fork Union.
