The St. Croix Dolphins Swim Team traveled to Arizona over President’s weekend, Feb. 14-19, to compete in the Phoenix Winter Invitational. The competition was attended by 19 teams from around the United States, Mexico and South Africa, amounting to more than 400 swimmers. It was a great opportunity for Dolphins swimmers to qualify to represent the Virgin Islands in the CARIFTA Games th at take place next month in Jamaica.
The St. Croix Dolphins took eight swimmers: JJ Washshah (15), Chloe Hayden (14), Matthew Mays (14), Victor Torres (17), Alex Lewit (16), Kenny Wilson (14), Tony Hendricks (15) and Jonathan Thomas (14) to compete in the four-day swim meet. Matthew Mays had an impressive meet, making the championship final (top 8) in all six of his events. He placed second in the 200 meter butterfly, third in the 400m individual medley and 100m backstroke in the 13-14 boys category. Chloe Hayden qualified for Carifta in the 100m breaststroke as well as making finals in all her events and placing 7th in the 200m backstroke. Jonathan Thomas finished 5th and 6th in his two breaststroke events. Alex Lewit had a great meet, lowering his converted best times in all seven of his events. Kenny, Victor, Tony and JJ had several best times and swam in at least one final each night.
Swimming in a 25-yard pool provided the Dolphin swimmers an opportunity to experience competing in a short-course yards pool, as they will in college, which is much different than swimming in their 50-meter home pool on St. Croix. Having double sessions (prelims and finals) was great practice to learn how their bodies works and how quickly they recover after swimming fast in the morning to doing it again in just a few hours the same day. Swimmers must have discipline to be able to perform in fast meets such as these.
The V.I. swimmers were fortunate to have Olympic Gold Medalist Misty Hyman, a resident of Phoenix and a great friend of St. Croix and the Dolphins, to assist Dolphins coach Brian Brady throughout the meet – motivating them and sharing her expertise and experiences. They also had the opportunity to compete in the 50m free and 100m free against Olympic Gold Medalist Roland Schoeman from South Africa (2004 Athens).
While in Phoenix, the Dolphins took the opportunity to tour the Grand Canyon University and meet with someone in the Athletics and Admissions Department. For fun, the team went sightseeing at the Farm at Smith Mountain and for ice cream in Old Town Scottsdale.
The trip proved to be an educational as well as competitive experience for the student athletes, who expect to receive a college swimming scholarship in the near future. Traveling to off-island meets, such as this one, prepares the athletes for the international meets that are quickly approaching (CARIFTA, CCCAN and World Championships).