Pines Swimmers Continue Recent Success

Pines Swimmers Continue Recent Success
Ocean Pines Swim Club members enjoyed a great meet last weekend at UMBC with several personal bests. Pictured above are Coach Kristina Watts, Laney McDaniel, Ashleigh Noonan, Emma Coyman, Haris Gjikuria, Meghan Bean, Coach Rob Leszcynski, Addy McDaniel and Hannah Allam in front.

OCEAN PINES- Fourteen swimmers represented Ocean Pines Swim Team (OPST) Hammerheads at the 2019 Maryland B Championship Meet held last weekend at UMBC.

Swimmers Hannah Allam, Meghan Bean, Ian Betterson, Emma Coyman, Zarek Coyman, Haris Gjikuria, Jake Harner, Addy McDaniel, Laney McDaniel, Amanda Nicastro, Ashleigh Noonan, Kaolin Riser, Matt St. Pierre, and Sonny St. Pierre all competed in multiple events.

OPST swimmers are encouraged to participate in meets throughout the season in order to measure personal progress. One of the highlights for a coach is when an athlete achieves a personal best time. The Hammerheads saw significant amount of personal best swims from all swimmers at this meet.

“This meet has the greatest amount of time dropped so for far this season,” said Coach Kristina Watts. “These swimmers have really been taking our coaching tips and putting them into action to make these dramatic improvements happen.”

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Competing for the Ocean Pines Swim Club last weekend in a different session were Ian Betterson, Zarek Coyman, Amanda Nicastro, Sonny St. Pierre, Matt St. Pierre, Jake Harner.
Submitted photos

The Hammerheads saw several Top-16 finishes in addition to best times. Gjikuria finished 2nd in the 13-14 girls 50-yard freestyle with a time of 30.81, 14th in the 100-yard backstroke and 16th in the 100-yard freestyle. Emma Coyman finshed 5th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 31.32.  Emma Coyman also had a 3rd place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:24.85 and placed 11th in the 200 backstroke.

Noonan placed 6th in the 11-12 girls 50-yard freestyle with time of 32.00. Bean placed 12th in the 13-14 girls 50-yard freestyle and 5th in the 100-yard backstroke. Riser had a 13th place finish in the 11-12 girls 50-yard backstroke. The 11-12 girls 200 freestyle relay team of Noonan, Laney McDaniel, Allam, and Addy McDaniel placed 6th.

Harner had two 9th-place finishes in the 9-10 boys 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard individual medley, placed 15th in the 50-yard freestyle and 16th in the 100-yard backstroke. Betterson had a 15th place finish in the 13-14 boys 50-yard freestyle.

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.