Two gold medals and several final appearances was how Bahamian swimmer Margaret Albury Higgs closed day three of competition in the annual CARIFTA Swimming Championships, here at the Betty Kelly Kenning National Aquatics Complex.
Higgs won the first gold of the day for The Bahamas, on Saturday evening, in the 200 meter (m) individual medley (IM) in the 11-12 girls division. She swam 2:37.35. The silver and bronze medals went to Keeley Maduro and Junice Martin, who touched the walls in 2:40.20 and 2:42.24 respectively.
Shortly after jumping out of the pool in the 200m IM, Higgs returned in the 50m breaststroke to win in 37 seconds flat. Suelenn Graanoogst was second in 38.38 seconds and Anahi Schreuders finished third in 38.92 seconds. The third gold for Team Bahamas came from Matthew Lowe in the 200m butterfly. Lowe's time of 2:09.54 gave him the edge over Bryson Mays of the U.S. Virgin Islands who settled for second and Matthew Courtis of Barbados who finished third. Closing with a bang on Saturday was the 15-17 boys' 800m freestyle relay team of Dustin Tynes, Matthew Lowe, Anibal Hernandez Valdes and T'Auren Moss. The quartet clocked 8:02.99 for the win over Martinique and Aruba. Dionisio Carey picked up a silver medal in the 50m breaststroke while Zach Moses shared the bronze with Schreuders, Corey Ollivierre and Raiz Joe A TJon.
All three swimmers stopped the clock at 33.16 seconds. In the 200m butterfly, Taryn Smith won silver behind Amara Gibbs of Barbados who captured the gold in 2:24.75. Smith's time was 2:27.60. In that race, Abigail Lowe of The Bahamas was eighth in 2:57.60. A new record was set in the 15-17 boys' 100 freestyle. Joshua Romany of Trinidad and Tobago erased the old mark of 51.22 seconds performed by Samuel Lameynardie last year. His time of 50.99 seconds was the only record set on the day. Romany's teammate Dylan Carter secured the silver touching the wall in 51.36 seconds and Jemal Le Grand finished in 52.39 seconds. Bahamian T'Auren Moss was fourth in 53.17 seconds. Also placing fourth and missing out on a medal was Moses in the 200m IM for boys 13-14. His time was 2:21.27. Mikel Schreuders of Aruba won in 2:16.56, Matthias Marsau came in second in 2:17.15 and Jabari Baptiste finished third in 2:20.61. Bria Deveaux got fourth in the 15-17 girls' 100m freestyle. She stopped the clock in 59.39 seconds. Two of the 800m freestyle relay teams came in fourth. Swimming on the team for the 13-14 girls was Leslie Campbell, Doran Reed, Tremaine Allen and Joanna Evans.
The team posted a time of 9:22.68. Carey, Farion Cooper, Meshach Roberts and Zach Moses were fourth in their division in a time of 8:50. The time of 31.03 seconds ranked Dustin Tynes fifth overall in the boys' 15-17 division in the 50m breaststroke event. Diguan Pigot of Suriname won the event in 30.27 seconds while Ross Phillips' time was 30.38 seconds and Jordy Groters touched in 30.88 seconds. Other Bahamians placing fifth were Doran Reed in the girls' 13-14 100m freestyle, Higgs in the 200m butterfly and the 15-17 girls' 800m relay team. That team consisted of Deveaux, Abigail Lowe, Je'Nae Saunders and Smith. A couple of sixth place finishes were swam by Bahamian swimmers. Evans was sixth in 1:03.26, and Tremaine Allen and Simone Sturrup were out of the medal hunt in the 13-14 division. Allen placed sixth in 38.55 seconds and Sturrup was 10th overall in 40.35 seconds. Among the finalists in the 15-17 division was Alaena Carey. She placed seventh in 36.31 seconds. Teammate Je'Nae Saunders was 12th overall in 38.63 seconds. Farion Cooper's time in the 13-14 boys' 100m freestyle was 57.88 seconds which placed him seventh overall.
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