The Selma Country Club Sharks, Selma’s local swim team, kicked off their 2002 season with a win over Chilton County YMCA’s Stingrays.

The two teams met at the SCC, and they competed in several categories and divisions. Boys and girls competed in divisions of age 6-and-under, 7-8, 9-10, and 11-and-up. They competed in freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and backstroke.

Katherine Hughes, this year’s coach of the Sharks, said her team is concentrating on getting their strokes down.

“We’ve worked hard so far,” she said. “We’ve really worked on perfecting our strokes and things like that–like how to breathe, and how many times to.”

Their hard work paid off in the Sharks’ 153-151 defeat of the Stingrays. Points in the meets are decided by the placing of a team’s individual swimmers. A first place finish gains the team four points, second merits three, third gets two points, and any participant in an event gains one point for his team.

When all heats have concluded, each team’s points are totaled and the winner of the meet is decided.

Selma grabbed the victory due to its team members many top-three finishes. In the 6-and-under boys’ division, Ford Manderson finished second in the freestyle, while Dalton Lee won first in the freestyle, butterfly, and breaststroke and second in the backstroke.

For the 7-8 year-old boys, Porter Rivers came in first in the freestyle, second in the backstroke, and fourth in both the breaststroke and the butterfly. Pfeiffer Triplett was first in the backstroke and second in the freestyle, and he won third in both the breaststroke and the butterfly. John Neil Nettles placed second in the freestyle and fourth in the breaststroke.

The 7-8 year-old girls also had a winner–Anne Marie Pilcher placed first in her division’s breaststroke and second in the butterfly.

The 9-10 year-old boys’ Jody Glover picked up a second-place finish in the freestyle and landed fourth in the butterfly and the breaststroke. Andrew Truax won first in the backstroke, second in the breaststroke, and placed third in both the freestyle and the butterfly.

Anna Elizabeth Howell picked up three first-place finishes for the 9-10 year-old girls. She took top honors in the freestyle, the backstroke, and the butterfly. She also placed third in the breaststroke. In other races in the division, Catherine Armstrong placed first in freestyle and the butterfly and won second in the backstroke. Molly Mims won third in the backstroke and fourth in the butterfly, while Elizabeth Manderson was third in freestyle, first in the backstroke, and second in the butterfly.

In the 11-and-up division of the boys, Jay Pilcher was second in the freestyle and the butterfly and first in the backstroke. Sparks Cotheran took second in the butterfly, while Heath Harrelson took third in the freestyle and the butterfly and second in the backstroke. Cain Summerville took the top honors in the backstroke.

With one win under their belts, the SCC Sharks now look forward to their meet against the Tuscaloosa Country Club, which is a home meet scheduled for Saturday, June 22 at 11 a.m.