Mother Nature provided a perfect day for the first-ever Big Sandy Swim Meet. Warm temperatures and a gentle breeze made for an enjoyable day outside minus the mosquitoes. Thirty-three Barracudas took to the water for some friendly competition against their teammates in what would be considered a scrimmage for other sports. This was definitely not a typical meet for our team. They overcame the obstacles of a shorter than regulation pool, a pool too shallow to allow flip turns on one end and no lane lines or markers for flip turns in the deep end. There was hand timing and starting versus electronic touch pads and automated starting equipment. Finally, there was an entire meet put on by personnel who had never before run a swim meet. Despite these obstacles, swimmers and parents pulled together to provide a top-notch event.
For five of the Barracudas, this was their very first experience at a swim meet. They dealt with stage fright, seemingly daunting lengths of the pool and shed a few tears. When it was all over, every one of our new swimmers completed their races and reported an enjoyable experience. New to the Barracudas squad this year are T'Gan Ketchum, Joseph Demontiney, Julian Demontiney, Isaac Goodman and Lila Butler.
Our intermediate and senior swimmers provided not only fast-paced action, but added a little humor to the meet as well. There was strong competition amongst the team members, but some playful relay antics brought fun to the meet as well.
While the meet wasn't run with the official rules of swimmers being required to designate their three scoring races and swimming exhibition for the rest, overall points were calculated based upon what races these swimmers would traditionally compete in at a regular meet. Posting strong performances in the pool were Dillin Geyer & Cam Schwarzbach, who tied for high-point swimmer in the senior boy's division, Caydence Pleninger dominated the senior girls, with Lane Demontiney and Daisy LaBuda bringing home the intermediate swimmers high point honors. Darrell Sunchild and Jai Baumann topped the Junior division, with McKenzie Werk winning the Midget division and Henry Merrill and D'Aree Sunchild winning the 8-Under divisions.
The Big Sandy Swim Team would like to extend our gratitude to the Big Sandy City Council, the Big Sandy Pool staff and the Chouteau County Health Department for allowing our event to take place. We would also like to thank our Barracudas supporters; those who came in person and the almost 100 who tuned in via the NFHS network. We hope to provide this opportunity again in the future for our swimmers and the community.
