It’s been a great finish to the season for the Starkville Swim Team, which wrapped up competition last weekend at the Mississippi Swimming Long Course Championship in Tupelo just a few weeks after another great showing at the 8U Developmental Meet in early July.
Starkville Swim head coach Donald Williams took 16 swimmers to the long course championships and his group hopped out the pool with a host of top-three finishes and the medals to prove their late-season excellence – something Williams said he is proud to see.
“They work hard; they are all hard-working kids,” said Williams, who is closing in on his first year as the team’s head coach. “Usually that’s a given, but they are funny and able to laugh and are able to take hard work and still make it enjoyable and make it a good time. They are not pessimistic or downers or afraid of doing hard things, so it’s been interesting to see.”
Evalyn Wu had a dominating outing in the girls 11-12-year-old age group with three first-place and three-second place finishes. She won the 50M breaststroke in 39.36, the 100M breaststroke in 1:26.24, and the 200M individual medley in 2:47.01 and landed silver in in the 50M backstroke in 36.33, the 50M freestyle in 30.42 and 100M freestyle in 1:07.19.
Williams said Wu’s excellence in the water was hard to miss.
“I would say Evalyn Wu certainly stood out,” he said. “I think in every one of her races she was in the top three.”
Cooper Koehn also had a great day in the pool in the long course competition with two first-place finishes in the boys 10-and-under age bracket. He captured the 100M breaststroke gold in 1:46.94 and the 50M breaststroke in 49.68. Teddy Brain helped represent the team in the boys 15-and-over age bracket with a strong showing as well. He finished in second place in the 100M freestyle in 53.96 and took third place in the 100M backstroke in 1:04.96 and the 50M butterfly in 26.71.
Axl Landers grabbed gold in the boys 10-and-under 100M butterfly in 1:36.91, second in the 200M freestyle in 3:21.12 and third in the 100M backstroke in 1:32.08. Sean Park notched a second-place finish in the 100M breaststroke (1:29.45) in the boys 11-12-year-old age group and took third in the 50M breaststroke (40.53).
Timur Gabitov also raced in the 15-and-over grouping with two third-place finishes in the 200M butterfly (2:20.01) and the 100M breaststroke (2:44.72). Evandyr Ni took first in the 50M breaststroke time trial in 37.57 in the boys 13-14-year-old bracket. Justin Chung wrapped up the boys top-three finishes with a silver medal in the boys 13-14-year-old age group with a 1:00.68 outing in the 100M freestyle.
For the girls, Veronica Ni earned two third-place medals in the 11-12-year-old group with a 31.35 finish in the 50M freestyle and a 36.49 finish in the 50M butterfly.
In relays, the team of Fisher McCain, Cole Tucker, Koehn and Landers earned second in the boys 10-under 200M freestyle relay in 2:42.80 and second in the 200M medley relay in 3:03.98.
In the 8U developmental meet in early July, Williams only took two swimmers to the competition and they both put on a show there as well, capturing first in all five of their events. Emma Ai won the girls 50-yard backstroke (43.45), the 25-yard breaststroke (23.03), the 25-yard backstroke (20.05), the 50-yard breaststroke (49.61) and the 100-yard individual medley (1:40.06) while Fisher McCain took gold in the 50-yard backstroke (40.54), 50-yard butterfly (46.26), 50-yard freestyle (36.92), 50-yard breaststroke (48.99) and the 100-yard individual medley (1:33.57).
The swimming season is now over for most of Starkville’s swimmers, but four of them earned the opportunity for another to advance to the Southern Zone Age Group Championships, which will be held from July 29-Aug. 1 in Orlando, Fla., after their showing at the long course championships last weekend. Evandyr Ni, Veronica Ni, Evalyn Wu and Justin Chung each will help represent Mississippi to close out the season.
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