Last Thursday the Sparkman Swim team had the second meet of their season competing in the Scottsboro Wildcat Invitational. 

The two top womens performers of the meet for Sparkman were Monrovia 7th grader Bella Minnon and senior Jordan Brenton. Minnon placed second in the 100 fly with a time of 1:08 and later went on to earn herself a sixth place finish in the 100 freestyle. Brenton attempted the 500 freestyle for the first time in her swimming career and placed 5th with a time of 8:10. Another huge moment for the women’s team was by Monrovia eighth grader Lydin West who swam a personal best in the 200 I.M with a time of 2:46 dropping 18.93 seconds off her previous time.

The women’s relay team placed fifth for the 200 medley and fourth place for the 200 free relay. 

The men’s team did well too having more swimmers than the last meet, which was four. The top 2 performers for the men was junior Quintellis Darden ll and senior Alex Bratton. Darden swam his 2 most notable events, the 100 butterfly and the 200 I.M. Darden got 1st place for the 200 I.M. with a time of 2:12 and 2nd place for the 100 butterfly swimming it in 56 seconds. Darden made the state sectional qualifying times for both of these events. Bratton swam the 50 freestyle which he had an unfortunate start to slipping off the blocks but came back and placed 7th with a time of 26 seconds. Later in the meet he tackled the 500 freestyle and placed 2nd with a time of 6:15. The last time he swam this event was in 2021 and couldn’t finish due to his right knee dislocating on the 8th lap.

“The last time I swam this event was around two and half years ago having an unfortunate ending to it. Coming back to this event two and a half years later had myself wondering where I would be. I went into this event with little to no strategy hoping to see where I was. I did better than I expected but I know have a lot more to give so I look forward to racing it again at the Madison County Championship” said by Bratton

Also competing in his first meet back since the 2022 season was sophomore Cameron Thompson. Thompson swam the 200 freestyle and earned himself a time of 2:50 but believes he has more to give.

“Well, everyone did excellent, especially Bratton, Darden and Vladimir Smith. Personally, I believe my own ability has much to be desired but there’s many more opportunities to improve” said by Thompson

 The men’s relay team placed third in both the 200 medley and the 400 freestyle relay races. The order and swimmers for this were different from the last meet as Coach Lundgren has been testing out the relays seeing what is the best way to do them.  

The senators placed 3rd out of 7 teams. This is the highest the senators have ever placed at the Wildcat Invitational having never placed higher than fifth, furthermore proving how much of an impact Coach Lundgren has made on the team. They will be back on October 10th competing at the Madison County championships.

“It was awesome to cheer on my teammates and see them do well. I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the season has for myself and the rest of the team” Monrovia eighth grader Megan Zaremba