Gold rains down on Stingray in day 2 of competition

More gold medals and CARIFTA times on day 2 of competition as Stingray's Jamaica crew swam lights out on Friday evening. 

Starting the party were Sam Bailey and Ella Plunkett, who placed 1st and 3rd respectively in the first event of the evening, the girls 11-12 200 Back. Sam clocked a 2:42 while Ella came in at 2:51. Both nearly edged out the next competitor, burying them with strong finishes.

Cole Morgan made it two straight on the night, and two straight in Jamaica by winning the 200 back in 2:22, matching his best time from taper, swum only two months ago. Possibly a little bit quick on his first 50 (32.9), but a courageous effort that still paid off.

Corey Westerborg and Marisa Poole kept the train rolling by both knocking off gigantic amounts of time in the 200 IM. Westerborg obliterated the competition (3:30.2), beating the next closest swimmer in line by over 42 seconds to strike a third gold for Stingray in 4 events.

Immediately following Corey, Alison Jackson put a hurt down on the competition, chopping off 7 seconds to go a 3:04 in the 200 IM, also capturing first place. Ria Plunkett also destroyed her heat, coming in 10th place overall in her first ever swim in a long course pool. Krishna Adapa followed suit by winning his 200 IM heat in a blowout, knocking off 12 seconds and earning him 7th place.

Then there was the wait. Almost two hours of stops, starts and holds until finally, the 200 freestyle's began. Sam and Ella showed up in impressive fashion again, with Stefanie Boothe hot on their tracks this time around. Despite swimming in a mismatch heat, Sam still punched in a 2:30, earning her a silver medal. Ella and Stef came in 4th and 5th place, respectively, both having dropped more than 5 seconds. Ella's time of 2:36.6 being good enough to give her another event for CARIFTA.

Ashley Theaker continued to roll in the 13-14 Girls 200 free, placing 4th in a time of 2:25.7. Kyle Fraser and Iain McCallum settled a gentleman's bet in the pool to see who could swim the fastest 200 in their only events of the evening. Kyle dropped five seconds (2:17.25) to edge out Iain (2:17.8) who dropped one second in the event. Iain later reminded Kyle that he is approximately half the size of Fraser :D

Lauren Williams came on strong at the finish of her own 200 freestyle, knocking off all other competitors in her heat by a huge margin and dropping over 3 seconds to finish in 2:39. Despite a funky turn at the wrong time which disqualified her in the 2IM, Lauren has gone three for three so far at the meet and is dropping massive amounts of time in every race!

The swim of the night, though, despite all of this, goes to Jonathan Key (he's getting to like this Jamaica pool) for his 200 freestyle. Key Master popped off a first 50 of 32.5, a first 100 of 1:08 (to the feet), which in itself is a personal best, and still brought it home like a freight train going downhill. Jonathan dropped 16 seconds off of his best LCM time to post a 2:24.7, giving him 7th place. This means Jonathan has gone from a 2:37 short course, to a 2:30 short course, to a 2:27 short course, to a 2:24 LONG COURSE......... in only two weeks. BAM! 

go stingray! go cayman!... day 3 coming right up!