Bahamas, Cayman Islands Win 2017 CARIFTA Championship Titles

2017 CARIFTA Swimming Championships

• April 15-19, 2017
• Betty Kelly Kenning National Stadium
• Nassau, Bahamas
• Meet Central

Both the Bahamas boys and Cayman Islands girls walked away with team titles at the 2017 CARIFTA Championships held in Nassau, Bahamas, with both earning emphatic victories in the points standings.

On the boys side Bahamas put up a staggering 459 points, nearly 100 clear of the runners-up from Guadeloupe (361.5). For the girls, the Cayman Islands put up 408 points, topping Trinidad & Tobago (332) and Jamaica (328.5).

Combined, Bahamas was well ahead with 799.5, followed by Guadeloupe (662) and Cayman Islands (621.5). Bahamas dominated the medal count with a leading total of 60, though Trinidad & Tobago managed to top the gold medal charts with 20.

The high point winners for the 11-12 age group both came from Bermuda, as Elan Daley (80 pts) and Sam Williamson (79) took the honors respectively.

Daley swam a plethora of events, picking up a total of five victories in the 50 back, 200 IM, 50 breast, 100 free and 50 free, including the middle three all coming on the third night of racing. Her time of 27.50 in the 50 free was the top 11-12 performance of the meet (642 FINA Pts). Williamson also swam a multitude of events, earning five victories as well with a sweep of the breaststroke and IM events.

Gabriela Donahue (57) of Trinidad and Tobago and Nkosi Dunwoody (48) of Barbados earned top honors in the 13-14 category. Like Daley and Williamson, they both earned five individual wins apiece. Donahue swept the breaststroke events and added wins in the 50 fly and 50 back, while Dunwoody, like Williamson, swept the breaststroke and IM events. Ali Jackson of the Cayman Islands had the top 13-14 performance of the meet with her win in the 100 free in a time of 58.22 (714).

The 15-17 age category saw Lauren Hew (67) of the Cayman Islands and Patrick Groters (61) of Aruba dominate, earning six wins each. Hew swept the backstroke events and added wins in the 100, 200 and 400 free. Groters also swept the back events, and added wins in the 200 and 400 IM and 400 free. Groters had the top four FINA point scoring swims in the age group, led by his 200 IM time of 2:04.69 (764).