The Hardy County Stingrays splashed into the summer with 21 top-three finishes in the season opening freestyle swim meet at the Cumberland YMCA on Friday night.
Cumberland Sea Otters hosted the swim meet with the Stingrays joining Garrett County Manta Rays and the Bel Air Swim Club.
In their first season as the Stingrays head coaches, Hampshire High School graduates and Potomac State College enrollees Andrew Lupton and Abraham Toothman guided the team with enthusiastic support throughout the meet.
“We thought swimming was all over when we graduated, but this gives us a chance to do what we love. Although we would rather be actually swimming in the meet. It’s definitely really exciting, it’s awesome. I’m really glad I got the chance and opportunity to do this,” Hardy County Stingrays co-coach Abraham Toothman remarked.
“It’s hard to find the balance between coaching kids that have more experience than you do, but it’s definitely a good experience. It was a good, solid meet.”
Lupton and Toothman have experience from competing at the WVSSAC state swimming tournament and have a passion for the sport which continues to grow through teaching youth swim lessons in Hardy County and keeping the Stingrays thriving in the summer.
“I feel really good about it. I like the fact that they called us swimmers to do this. I’m glad we have this meet under our belt. We had solid times and now we can work on times. We have a lot of good goals to be made. We know what we need to work on,” Hardy County Stingrays co-coach Andrew Lupton stated.
All the swim teams in Cumberland huddled in the gymnasium, then each squad was given a warm-up session prior to the swim meet.
Members of the Hardy County Stingrays competing in Cumberland were (ages 7-15): Chloe Champ (7), Weston Eye (7), Geoffrey Williams (7), Elizabeth Williams (9), Caroline Auville (9), Kara Barb (10), Marcus Cremann (10), Amelia Gagnon (11), Kyle Molen (11), Caimy Williams (11), Emma Cremann (12), Trevor Johnston (12), Chloe Weikle (12), Alivia Williams (13) and Tori Humphries (15).
The oldest swimmer on the Stingrays is 16-year old Lindsey Rinker, who had a prior basketball commitment during the first swim meet.
The first event for the Stingrays was a 200-yard freestyle relay mixed age group of 9-12 years old featuring Elizabeth Williams, Emma Cremann, Trevor Johnston and Chloe Weikle finishing in second place with a time of 2:40.06.
Swimmers lined up on a bench along the wall before each event, then moved to the starting lines when called upon with some using the diving boards as others elected to jump into the pool lanes.
Decor on the walls was quite spectacular with fish of different varieties, sizes and colors, then there were banner flags in blue and black stretching across the pool.
In the girls 7-8 year old 25-yard freestyle B flight, Hardy County’s Chloe Champ took 10th place in a time of 45.64.
Hardy County had two top-five finishes in the 9-10 girls 25-yard freestyle B flight as Caroline Auville earned second place with a time of 21.10 and Kara Barb was in fifth place at 23.08 which was over two seconds faster than her last race the previous season.
In the boys 7-8 25-yard freestyle B flight, Weston Eye notched third place for the Stingrays in 28.31 and Geoffrey Williams took fourth place at 54.59.
Continuing in the 25-yard freestyle B flight for the 9-10 year old boys, Hardy County’s Marcus Cremann reached for the edge of the pool for second place in a time of 19.81 which was six seconds better than his seed time showing a huge smile after the finish.
Elizabeth Williams earned a second place medal for the Stingrays in the 9-10 girls 50-yard freestyle A flight race with a time of 43.42 which was faster than the seed time by 4.56 seconds.
Hardy County’s Caimy Williams made a gold medal time of 32.38 in the 11-12 girls 50-yard freestyle A flight.
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Coaches Toothman and Lupton continued to meet with the swimmers before and after each race giving words of encouragement.
Alivia Williams competed in the next event which was the 13-14 girls 50-yard freestyle A flight and placed second in a time of 35.81, knocking off the seed time by four seconds.
The Stingrays had three swimmers in the 11-12 girls 50-yard freestyle B flight with Emma Cremann leading the way for third place at 39.50 (seed 43.55), Chloe Wiekle finished in fourth at 46.44 (seed 51.28) and Amelia Gagnon took sixth place at 55.94 (seed 1:05.35).
In the 15 and over girls 50-yard freestyle B flight, Hardy County’s Tori Humphries placed second in a time of 35.69.
The last recorded time for Humphries was from a number of years ago as softball tournaments took precedent in recent seasons, so the seed time was at 1:17.44.
Hardy County’s Trevor Johnston placed third in the 11-12 boys 50-yard freestyle A flight with a time of 34.77 improving on the seed time of 39.36 and showed an enthusiastic smile and made a splash with arms pumped.
In the boys 11-12 50-yard freestyle B flight, Kyle Molen finished in second place with a time of 49.88 for the Stingrays.
Hardy County’s Chloe Champ took tenth place in the 7-8 girls 50-yard freestyle B flight in a time of 1:40.64.
The next race was the 9-10 girls 50-yard freestyle B flight with two Stingrays swimmers led by Caroline Auville in second place at 48.07 and Kara Barb in fifth place at 52.66.
It was interesting noticing how some swimmers alternated each side for taking a breath when stroking through the water, while others maintained the same side for each leg.
Moving to the 7-8 boys 50-yard freestyle B flight, Hardy County’s Weston Eye placed third in a time of 1:13.60, while Geoffrey Williams was disqualified despite finishing the tough lap with the encouragement of his mother along the way and the crowd gave a huge cheer at the end.
Marcus Cremann placed second in the boys 9-10 50-yard freestyle B flight race with a time of 46.17 shaving off over six seconds from the seed time.
Hardy County’s Elizabeth Williams was second in the girls 9-10 100-yard freestyle A flight with a time of 1:45.86, beating the seed time in double digits (1:57.72).
Caimy Williams won the girls 11-12 100-yard freestyle A flight for the Stingrays in a time of 1:16.40 and improved on the seed time of 1:23.02.
Alivia Williams placed second in the girls 13-14 100-yard freestyle A flight with a time of 1:22.91, better than the seed time of 1:34.93.
Another champion time went to Hardy County’s Emma Cremann at 1:28.22 (seed 1:34.46) in the 11-12 girls 100-yard freestyle B flight, while teammates Amelia Gagnon took sixth place at 2:16.34 (seed 2:28.10) and Chloe Weikle was disqualified.
In the girls 15 and over 100-yard freestyle B flight, Hardy County’s Tori Humphries finished in second place at 1:20.61.
Trevor Johnston eclipsed his seed time in a second place time of 1:22.37 compared to 1:39.52 in the 11-12 boys 100-yard freestyle A flight for the Stingrays keeping the stellar swim times flowing.
Hardy County’s Kyle Molen lost his goggles during his 100-yard freestyle event and was disoriented, but continued to swim during the disqualification.
For the first time at the Cumberland YMCA, there was a mixed 9-12 200-yard freestyle t-shirt relay as each member had to exchange a shirt to begin the next portion of the race.
Hardy County Stingrays had three relay teams for this event finishing in second, sixth and eighth places: Elizabeth Williams, Emma Cremann, Trevor Johnston and Chloe Weikle led the second place team with a time of 4:36.22; then Kara Barb, Marcus Cremann, Amelia Gagnon and Kyle Molen took sixth place in a time of 5:38.54 and the squad of Chloe Champ, Weston Eye, Caroline Auville and Mattia Auville were eighth overall at 5:55.95.
The marathon race to end the swim meet was the 500-yard freestyle and Hardy County’s Tori Humphries finished in second place with a time of 8:58.75 in her first attempt at this event.
Humphries was nervous before the race, but her coaches showed tremendous support and her teammates joined them in cheering during the race and that was motivating to complete the race.
The Stingrays compete on Friday nights except for Independence Day week, then the championship will be on Saturday July 21.
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