Action just wrapped up at the 2015 Bahamas National Championships, where several swimmers took home multiple event wins over the course the competition, which took place from June 25-28th.
Full Meet Results Available on Meet Mobile
15-year old Albury Higgs would up with six individual event titles by the time the meet ended, including a sweep of the breaststroke races. Higgs swam away with the 50m breast title in 34.17, the 100m breast in 1:13.46 and the 200m distance in 2:37.82. Then Higgs made a dent in the butterfly events, taking wins in both the 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly contests in times of 1:08.02 and 2:40.41, respectively. Higgs clenched another victory in the 200m IM, where she won the final by over 5 seconds, clocking a time of 2:23.66.
Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace also made her mark on the meet, racking up three victories of her own. She claimed the 50m butterfly win in a time of 26.56, a time which ranks just outside the world’s top 25. Vanderpool-Wallace already rocked a time of 25.93 at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Charlotte, ranking her 6th in the world. At this meet, Vanderpool-Wallace would also go on to take the women’s 50m and 100m freestyle events. She registered a mark of 25.10 to touch first in the 50m freestyle, although Vanderpool-Wallace ranks as 3rd-fastest in the world with her time of 24.35 she also swam in Charlotte. In the 100m free, Vanderpool-Wallace nabbed first place in a time of 55.65.
Doubling up on individual event wins in the backstrokes was Ariel Weech, taking the 50m event in a time of 30.99 and the 100m distance in a mark of 1:10.70. Weech also had several runner-up finishes over the course of the meet, including placing second in the women’s 50m butterfly (28.33), the 50m breaststroke (35.72), and 50m freestyle (26.84).
Dustin Tynes, 18, took home a trifecta of breaststroke victories at the meet. Tynes won the 50m breaststroke in a time of 29.52 and followed that up with a winning 100m breaststroke time of 1:05.09 and a 200m breaststroke winning time of 2:25.83.
Elvis Burrows was able to pull down a couple of wins at the championships as well, taking national titles in the 50m freestyle in a time of 23.67 and the 50 butterfly in a time of 24.98. Burrows’ 50 free was his fastest this year and his 50 fly was only .07 of a second off his best 2015 time. Burrows’ fastest 50 freestyle outing this year was the 23.76 he registered just a week ago at the Florida Summer Solstice Invite. At that meet Burrows was also able to crank out a 24.91 in his 50 butterfly as his fastest time for 2015 up to this point.
Bahamas odds are much better in track than swimming for an Olympic medal. Their achilles heal is their population size.