The Mako Aquatics Club opened the first day of the Bahamas Aquatics Federation's National Swimming Championships with a strong performance, surged to the front and never looked back. They took a huge lead and extended that lead every day of the meet to claim its fifth consecutive national title. The four-day meet wrapped up on Sunday night at the Betty Kelly-Kenning National Swim Complex.
Mako amassed a whopping 2,689 points to swim away with the title. Finishing a distant second was the Barracuda Swim Club which scored 1,569 points. Securing the third position was Alpha Aquatics who finished with 1,524.50 points. The Blue Waves Swim Club came away with 965.50 points to place fourth.
Head Coach for Mako Travano McPhee attributed the victory mainly to his swimmers.
"It feels great to get the victory," McPhee said. "These kids work very hard and went through ups and downs, great swims, not so good swims, but at the end of the day, they came through and they performed. The point standards were so good. It was amazing to win by such a margin. I think the most impressive things were the personal best times. It is a long meet, so it takes a lot to sustain and stay focused for four days. The team captains did an excellent job, taking on the responsibility of making sure that all the swimmers do their part in ensuring that they were warming down, doing their warmups and the stretching routines. All of that was a part of a very successful nationals."
Mako also won the most medals at the meet with 221. They also had the most gold, silver and bronze medals with 86 gold, 64 silver and 71 bronze.
The Barracuda Swim Club had the second most medals with 123. They captured 46 gold, 43 silver and 34 bronze medals. Alpha had the third most medals as they finished with 113. They nabbed 45 gold medals, 37 silver and 31 bronze.
Mako led with 631 points at the end of the first day while Barracuda had 392 points to sit in second place and Alpha had 324 points. McPhee said diving into the lead after the first day was the game plan coming into the four-day meet.
"We spoke about that - coming out of the gate and showing our dominance by the end of the first day. We wanted to win big as a team," McPhee said. "A lot of these swimmers train from September to June and have a couple of months off, so just seeing them perform well, executing rate strategies, sticking to the plan and showing up on time for warmup, is what brings it together. The parents did a great job in dropping and picking up the kids, making sure they ate, and making sure they're doing all that you need the swimmers to do. The parents did an outstanding job."
McPhee is known to be the heart and soul of Mako, but he said it was the efforts of the coaches who assisted him on New Providence and Grand Bahama that led the team to victory.
"I can't do it alone," McPhee said. "We have an excellent coaching team. They planned great with getting the relays organized and getting the warmups organized. I cannot do this by myself. It is a whole team effort and they did outstanding job."
The other coaches include Dwayne Davis Jr., Amanda McPhee, Ashton Knowles, Adrian Sands, Ivaniuska Dreke, Kaliyah Albury, Karon Johnson, Madison Davis and Sara Knowles.
Mako Aquatics celebrated with the customary jumping into the pool and a small celebration afterward. They will have a bigger celebration later.
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