Crooks leads Cayman’s strong showing at CCCAN Champs

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 8 July 2018

Jillian Crooks (centre) had a big meet for Team Cayman. (Photos courtesy CIASA)

Cayman’s National Swim Team returned from Aruba on Wednesday with 14 Medals, 10 National and CIASA Records, plus a CCCAN record and a Youth Olympics B-Cut qualifying time. If that wasn’t enough, as a true testament to the hard work and effort of Cayman’s young athletes, the swimmers produced 46 personal best times out of 67 swims.

The Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championship hosted 550 swimmers across all swimming disciplines and close to 400 swimmers in competitive swimming over 151 events. The races were contested as preliminary qualifying heats in the morning and finals in the evenings, a similar format to CARIFTA and other four or five day swim meets.

Cayman has become a competitive force and a challenger to much bigger teams from bigger islands. Looking closely at the age group results, Cayman’s 11-12 Girls team ranked 2nd overall, demonstrating Cayman swimmers young swimmers are the ones to watch.

L-R: Jillian Crooks, Stefano Bonati, Jake Alberga, Avery Lambert, Allyson Belfonte, Corey Frederick-Westerborg, Jordan Crooks, Sabine Ellison, Sophie Ackerley

Coach Celeb Miller commented, “Our swimmers exceeded expectations and look good going forward with this next generation of swimmers. They really stepped up and filled the gap that was made by some of our older swimmers graduating and heading off to college.”

CCCAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2018: CIASA/ NATIONAL LCM RECORDS

11-12 Girls:

* 50 Back – Jillian Crooks 32.11 (30 June): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

* 100 Fly – Jillian Crooks 1:06.87 (30 June): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

* 200 Free – Jillian Crooks 2:16.95 (1 July): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

* 50 Fly – Jillian Crooks 30.08 (1 July): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

* 100 Back – Jillian Crooks 1:10.45 (1 July): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

* 200 IM – Jillian Crooks 2:36.70 (2 July): NATIONAL Record.

* 100 Free – Jillian Crooks 1:01.72 (2 July): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

* 50 Free – Jillian Crooks 27.46 (3 July): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

* 200 Back – Jillian Crooks 2:33.98 (3 July): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record.

13-14 Boys:

* 50 Free – Corey Frederick-Westerborg 26.06 (3 July): CIASA/ NATIONAL Record

“The timing of the event was not ideal after exams and between other meets, but all of our swimmers really performed above what we were expecting. We are very proud of this young team’s performance and results,” added coach Bailey Weathers.

Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championship (CCCAN) is held every other year and it had been over 5 years since Cayman had sent a team. The competitive swimming event took place from 29th June to 3rd July 2018 at the ‘Piscina Olimpico Roly Bisslik’, in the city of Savaneta, Aruba.

CCCAN is an Age Group swimming championship with 11-12, 13-14, 15-17 and an 18 and over age categories. Cayman’s swimmers were aged from 12 to 15 years old. The Cayman Islands Swim Team included nine swimmers: Jake Alberga, Corey Frederick-Westerborg, Jillian Crooks, Allyson Belfonte, Sophie Ackerley, Avery Lambert, Sabine Ellison, Stefano Bonati and Jordan Crooks.