On January 26 and 27 we had over fourty of our swimmers compete at the Maine Swimming Developmental Meet held at Bates College. The meet offers us the opportunity to swim events that are not normally offered in our Y dual meets, and we go there with the purpose of building out our events and roster for the Maine Winter Championships coming up in March. The objective is to meet qualifying standards.

We had one new qualifier at the meet. Georgie McCamish joined the Winter Champs team by making her cut in the 10 and under 200 freestyle. We also had a number of swimmers qualify in additional or new events. These included Eli Burnham in the 10 and under 100 fly and 100 back, Addison Burnham and Anabelle Orth in the 11-12 100 breast. Suri Ramkissoon in the 11-12 200 breast and 200 IM. Emily Kennard in the 11-12 200 fly and 200 breast. Ryan Emerson in the 15-18 (which will be his new age group for Winter Champs) 200 breast and 200 back. Josh Lajoie and Raiden Ramkissoon in the 10 and under 100 backstroke, and Maddi Curran in the 15 and over 500 freestyle. 

We also set 13 new team records at the meet. Eli Burnham set records in the 8 and under 100 free (1:10.40) and the 10 and under 100 fly (1:26.06) and 200 IM (2:51.18). Addison Burnham set a new record in the 11-12 100 back (1:03.67). Ian Fournier set records in the 11-12 100 fly (1:03.67), 200 free (2:05.61) and 200 IM (2:20.93). Zac Claude set a new record in 11-12 200 backstroke (2:30.51). Jameson Russell broke his own record in the 13-14 200 fly (2:43.15), and Ryan Emerson adjusted the 13-14 record board in the 200 breast (2:42.19), 200 back (2:15.43) and 400 IM (5:09.20). The final record was set in the 13-14 boys 400 free relay by the team of Nate Best, Bailey Willey, Jameson Russell and Ryan Emerson (4:12.82).

In addition to our team record board, we broke some additional records. These included 4 Maine Swimming mixed relay records in the 11-12 200 medley relay (Emily Kennard, Ian Fournier, Anabelle Orth and Zac Claude), the 15 and over 400 free relay (Nathan Berry, Cade Parker, Gabby Low and Delaney Willey), the open 400 medley relay (Nathan Berry, Cecilia Guadalupi, Gabby Low and Ryan Emerson) and the same group of 4 for the open 800 free relay. The final record went to Gabby Low who broke the Bates College pool record in the 200 back (2:03.20).

The meet also provided the opportunity for our new USA swimmers to try some longer and more challenging races. Lots of first time swims in the meets and those involved embraced the challenge and did a great job.