By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
The temperature was in the mid-nineties at 6 p.m. on June 26 when the LMST Sharks hosted the Green Hills Gators at the Lake Monticello pool. Parents, grandparents, siblings and other spectators were all in search of shade. The meet was shortened by a serious cloud burst, but 33 events were completed. The score for the completed events was LMST 197 and GRG 193, so the teams were evenly matched.
In the first scored event of the night, the boys under 8 years old 100 meter relay, the Sharks number one team won by a huge margin. The team consisted of Michael Koerper, Christian Trader, Henry Ward and Braydon Arencibia. The next win for the Sharks came in the girls age 9-10 100 meter individual medley, (IM) as Allessandra Elliot finished first and her teammate Alexis Waksmunski was second. In the girls’ age 11-12 IM the Sharks completely dominated, taking the first seven spots. First place went to Annaliese Campbell, who was followed by Elliot Gehling.
In the boys 17-18 IM the winner for the Sharks was Jaxon Brooks, with teammate Aaron Fairbanks taking second place, nine seconds behind. On the girls side, Sophie Pace took the 100 IM, winning by less than a second. In the boys age 8 and under 25 meter freestyle sprint, a Green Hills swimmer took first, but the Sharks were second through seventh with members of the 100 meter relay team at two, three and four. In the girls under 8, 25 meter sprint, Ava Powell was second for the Sharks. In the boys 50 meter freestyle Perry Provencher took second for the Sharks. In the girl 50 meter freestyle Piper Eves won by three seconds for the Sharks. The Sharks put on quite a show in the girls 13-14, 50 meter freestyle with the ten fastest times. Jolynne Comer was first and Teagan Brown was second. Five swimmers were close for the Sharks, all under 41 seconds.
In the boys 13-14 age 50 freestyle Lake Monticello’s Zachary Allen took second. For girls in this event Madison Clark was second. In the boys 15-18 50 meter freestyle the Sharks took first and second, with Andrew Mikesh and Aaron Fairbanks grabbing the top spots. In the girls event sierra Miller took second place a tenth of a second off the pace.
In the boys 8 and under25 meter breaststroke event Brayden Arencibia was the winner for the Sharks. The final events of the rain shortened meet were events 32 and 33. Harper-page Amatt was second for the Sharks in the girls 8 and under breaststroke and Cole Gehling was second in the 9-10 50 meter back stroke.
The Sharks have co-head coaches this year – Austin Fairbanks and Maria Arroyo. At this meet, Stephanie (Fe Fe) Nardone substituted for Arroyo, who was on a mission trip to Guatemala. Fairbanks said that the Sharks have over 175 swimmers this year.
