Boadicea have themselves another title following a dominant performance from a CARIFTA swimmer.
No, not Zabrina Holder.
“Captain Courageous” Jason Cummings led from the front with a meet-high 50 points as Blue House held off a spirited challenge from Elizabeth before successfully defending their St Michael School Swimming Championship at the Aquatic Centre yesterday.
Their title was the cap to a perfect showing from the house captain, who swam unbeaten all day while capturing the boy’s 15-and-over
25-metre backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, 100-metre freestyle and 100 individual medley.
And Boadicea needed every one of those victories after holding a mere 26-point lead over Elizabeth (purple) at the lunchtime interval.
But Cummings got more than his fair share of support from Holder and 12-and-under division champ Isabella Lewis, allowing Blue House (665) to finish a clear 65 points ahead of their counterparts from purple.
Anne (yellow), sorely missing the Pan Am Games-bound Amara Gibbs, were a distant third with 335 points, while Victoria (red) brought up the rear on 271.
If anyone was glad not to see Holder joining Gibbs in Mexico they were clearly donning blue, as the multi-CARIFTA Games gold medallist was at her dominant best after winning the 25 metres butterfly, 100 metres IM and 100 metres freestyle.
However, Holder ended up ceding the breaststroke – and the overall 13-14 girls’ title – to CARIFTA hopeful Vanessa Keany, who had a division-best 42 points for Anne.
The division crown came on the basis of second-place efforts in four other events, including the 25-metre breaststroke and butterfly along with the 100-metre IM and freestyle.
But like those races, she was just second best on the list of top Anne performers.
The towering Akili Atherley proved to be the class of the girls’ 15-and-over category with a division-high 48 points, following victories in all but the 25-metre breaststroke, where she finished second.
Elizabeth’s Jonathan Manning had a similarly dominant performance while sweeping all five individual events of the boys’ 13-14 division for the day’s other perfect 50-point effort.
Francis Carvalho (46) of Victoria took the junior boys’ equivalent with victories in the breaststroke, individual medley and freestyle to complement silver medal swims in the butterfly and backstroke.
Lewis won the 25-metre butterfly and the 100-metre freestyle before finishing second in the breaststroke and taking bronze in the 100-metre IM for a total of 34 points.
