March 29, 2024

Stingrays make a splash during its first meet of 2021

After a year of challenges such as COVID-19, the disbandment of Creston’s Southern Prairie fitness center from the YMCA organization, and its pool maintenance, the Stingray swim team has pulled off its first meet of 2021 after its swimmers jumped back in the water last October as members of USA Swimming.

“We were very excited about the growth opportunities as result of this change,” said coach Nicole Webber. “After months of uncertainty we were thrilled to finally be back in the pool ... .”

However, amidst the challenges of a global pandemic, the team has been unable to travel to meets as it had in the past.

“We have always talked about one day being able to hold meets at our own pool, but this year has shown us just how important that is,” said Webber.

To grow the program, Webber said a number of parents have started the process of becoming certified officials, and the team was finally able to hold its annual Swim-a-thon at the end of January, which resulted in raising $2,895 to purchase starter equipment and software to mange its swim meets.

“While we still have a ways to go before we can host officially sanctioned meets, we are now able to run our own meets,” said Webber.

Saturday was the first meet the Stingrays has participated in nearly 12 months.

“The kids swam hard, the parents all jumped in to help and we had a fantastic morning of racing,” said Webber.

At Saturday’s meet, 18 athletes, age seven to 16, achieved a total of 30 individual “best times” and swam 29 “first time” events.

“It went fantastic. I am really happy with the way things came together,” said Webber.

Webber said one challenge was pairing people to race as the team has so many competitors of differing ability levels.

“But we figured it out and we had a number of close races and kids that this was their first swim meet ever,” she said.

Webber said there were many firsts.

“One girl started four weeks ago and worked with her father to be able to pass the deep end swim test so that she could join swim team,” said Webber. “She swam and it was just a lot of fun. I love seeing the kids cheer for each other.”

Twelve-year-old Malachi Webber, who has swam competitively since he was 8 years old, swam a 1,000 meter race for the first time. Karter Clayton, 14, dropped 17 seconds off her 200 individual medley. Newcomer Gus King, 10, who started swimming in October, dropped 13 seconds off his 50 meter freestyle.

“He had never really had swim lessons before. He could kind of get from one end to the other, but he learned the different strokes and was able to move up (from green group in October) to the blue group in January,” said Webber. “We did some timed tests and he dropped 13 seconds from where he was at in December to where he was at this last weekend.

Webber said she is “so proud” of the team and the sportsmanship they displayed.

“These kids have so much heart – the way they encourage each other and their persistence in spite of adversity, is absolutely inspiring,” said Webber.

Join the Stingrays

For area youth interested in joining the Stingrays Swim Team, the team will be hosting a stroke clinic 6 to 7 p.m. Monday nights in May. Summer session for all ability levels begins in June. Registration for both is available at https://tinyurl.com/stingraysummer21

Stingray Winter Champs Results

Mixed 10&U 100 Breast

1. Claire Ralston, SPS, 2:07.00S

2. Augustus King, SPS, 2:39.35S

Mixed 13-Ov 100 Free

1. Zoe Ralston, SPS, 1:20.00S

2. Mia Strunk, SPS, 1:22.62S

3. Cameron Guajardo, SPS, 1:29.00S

4. Amanda Malone, SPS, 1:30.00S

Mixed 11-12 100 Free

1. Malachi Webber, SPS, 1:13.72S

2. Hayden Levine, SPS, 1:24.94S

3. Reagan Guiter, SPS, 1:51.87S

Mixed 10&U 100 Free

1. Kayda Freeman, SPS, 2:17.20S

Mixed 08&U 25 Breast

1. Jacob Webber, SPS, 34.72S.

Mixed 11-12 100 Breast

1. Hayden Levine, SPS, 1:57.43S

2. Wyatt Goodenberger, SPS, 2:14.28S

Mixed 13-Ov 100 Breast

1. Karter Clayton, SPS, 1:39.35S

2. Zoe Ralston, SPS, 1:43.50S

3. Amanda Malone, SPS, 2:21.47S

Mixed 11-12 50 Breast

1. Wyatt Goodenberger, SPS, 1:04.75S

2. Reagan Guiter, SPS, 1:17.97S

0. Edan Shilling, SPS, 1:15.47S

Mixed 10&U 50 Breast

1. Weston Goodenberger, SPS, 1:01.62S

2. Claire Ralston, SPS, 1:01.84S

3. Augustus King, SPS, 1:14.10S

0. Kayda Freeman, SPS, 1:22.44S

Mixed 12-Ov 100 Fly

1. Malachi Webber, SPS, 1:38.07S

2. Cameron Guajardo, SPS, 1:42.62S

Mixed 08&U 25 Back

1. Jacob Webber, SPS, 32.66S

2. Harper Wilson, SPS, 49.97S

3. Allie Egli, SPS, 54.13S

Mixed 13-Ov 100 Back

1. Karter Clayton, SPS, 1:30.53S

0. Mia Strunk, SPS, 1:38.56S

Mixed 11-12 50 Back

1. Reagan Guiter, SPS, 1:03.09S

2. Edan Shilling, SPS, 1:12.04S.

3. Reese Guiter, SPS, 1:38.53S

Mixed 10&U 50 Back

1. Weston Goodenberger, SPS, 1:00.65S

2. Claire Ralston, SPS, 1:06.63 S

3. Augustus King, SPS, 1:13.22S

4. Kayda Freeman, SPS, 1:14.81S

Mixed 13-Ov 200 Free

1. Mia Strunk, SPS, 2:57.35S

Mixed 11-12 200 Free

1. Malachi Webber, SPS, 2:43.06S

Mixed 08&U 25 Free

1. Jacob Webber, SPS, 28.78S

2. Allie Egli, SPS, 57.32S

3. Harper Wilson, SPS, 57.65S

Mixed 11-12 50 Fly

1. Hayden Levine, SPS, 49.16S

2. Wyatt Goodenberger, SPS, 1:01.50S

3. Edan Shilling, SPS, 1:20.06S

0. Reagan Guiter, SPS, 1:07.41S

Mixed 10&U 50 Fly

1. Kayda Freeman, SPS, 1:23.00S

Mixed 13-Ov 200 IM

1. Karter Clayton, SPS, 3:13.31S.

2. Mia Strunk, SPS, 3:34.25S

0. Amanda Malone, SPS, 4:04.41S

0. Zoe Ralston, SPS, 3:28.63S

0. Cameron Guajardo, SPS, 3:54.09S

Mixed 11-12 100 IM

1. Hayden Levine, SPS, 1:34.84S

2. Malachi Webber, SPS, 1:35.25S

3. Wyatt Goodenberger, SPS, 2:11.59S

4. Reagan Guiter, SPS, 2:21.94S

Mixed 10&U 100 IM

1. Claire Ralston, SPS, 2:11.84S

0. Jacob Webber, SPS, 3:04.78S

Mixed 13-Ov 50 Free

1. Zoe Ralston, SPS, 33.72S

2. Karter Clayton, SPS, 33.94S

3. Mia Strunk, SPS, 38.10S

4. Cameron Guajardo, SPS, 40.28S

5. Amanda Malone, SPS, 40.97S

Mixed 11-12 50 Free

1. Hayden Levine, SPS, 40.78S

2. Wyatt Goodenberger, SPS, 49.85S

3. Edan Shilling, SPS, 58.78S

4. Reese Guiter, SPS, 1:38.22S

Mixed 10&U 50 Free

1. Weston Goodenberger, SPS, 46.41S

2. Claire Ralston, SPS, 46.94S

3. Kayda Freeman, SPS, 1:06.34S

4. Jacob Webber, SPS, 1:08.60S

5. Augustus King, SPS, 1:09.53S

Mixed 13-Ov 500 Free

1. Zoe Ralston, SPS, 8:33.56S

Mixed 12-Ov 1000 Free

1. Malachi Webber, SPS, 15:52.50S

Mixed 13-Ov 400 IM

0. Karter Clayton, SPS, 7:07.38S

SARAH  SCULL

SARAH SCULL

Sarah Scull is native of San Diego, California, now living in Creston, Iowa. She joined Creston News Advertiser's editorial staff in September 2012, where she has been the recipient of three 2020 Iowa Newspaper Association awards. She now serves as associate editor, writing for Creston News Advertiser, Creston Living and Southwest Iowa AgMag.