The Bainbridge Barracuda Swim Team traveled to Panama City Beach and to the Thomasville TYS Pentathlon the past two weeks to compete against teams from the tri-state area, both USA and GRPA.

At the PCB meet, which was a USA certified meet, the BBST had a good showing with most swimmers breaking their personal best times and even some with records broken. Carrisa White had a fantastic day breaking the 11-12 girls 1000 yard free, 200 yard breast and 400 yard IM.

Dawson Cottles also had a good showing by turning in times that broke both the 9-10 boys 200 yard free and 50 yard breast.

This was the first USA meet of the fall course season and the swimmers were getting acclimated from the short course season moving into the long course season in which the swimmers go from swimming yards to meters. 

This is a big difference when in the pool for most swimmers and the number of swimmers at USA certified long course meets are also increased. The PCB Speedo Invite contained about 300 swimmers ranging from ages 6-18.

At the Thomasville TYS Pentathlon, a short course GRPA meet, the BBST had another great showing with a 20-year-old record being broke by our very own Griffin Perkins, a first-year swimmer, Perkins broke the Boys 13-14 100 yard Butterfly record previously held by Bainbridge’s Stuart Bell at 1:20 seconds. Griffin turned in a time of 1:09 seconds, which demolished the previous time.

The record comes at a good time for Perkins, it was his very first swim meet and setting the bar for our other new swimmers that are striving to meet and exceed our standard for swimming. Griffin was not the only swimmer that turned in good times and we also had four other records within seconds of being broke as well. 

Carrington Belle Smith turned in a time of 21.95 seconds on the girls 7-8 25 yard butterfly which was 2 seconds off the record held by Abbie Chason, Thad Whitaker was 3 seconds from breaking the boys 15 and over 100 yard backstroke held by Lucas Nesmith, Allee Dickson turned in a time of 21.85 which was 3 seconds from breaking the girls 9-10 25 yard backstroke held by Ramsey Mathews and turned in a time of 17.31 in the girls 9-10 25 yard freestyle just missing that record as well, first year and first meet swimmer Gambler Dollar just missed the boys 9-10 25 yard backstroke by 2.5 seconds held by Scott Poitivent, Dawson Cottles was one second from taking the boys 9-10 25 yard freestyle record held by Scott Poitivent as well.

The swimmers are learning what it takes to compete at a new and different level then we have previously been competing at. The coaches have restructured swim practice to incorporate long distance running and explosive short distance sprints with much need core work. The swimmers are swimming 4000 yards 3-4 days a week at practice. A feat that most athletes simply cannot jump in the pool and do regardless of the shape of the athlete.

We are requiring not only dedication but a responsibility for each one’s self to become a better swimmer. 

The team is lead by Jennifer Clements, both the YMCA aquatics director and BBST swim coach.