Dec. 19, 2008 – The University of the Virgin Islands competed in its first meet of the season against the Harvard Women's Swim Team on Dec. 17, at UVI's home pool, the Dolphins Pool on St. Croix. Swimmers Joey Barnwell, Marcus Sydney, Kamal Russell, Khalid Matthew and Amanda Weber were standouts for the Bucs.
UVI Coach Kevin Tyrrell was impressed by the UVI swimmers who have been working hard this season to get in shape, "Our swimmers have several different options for practice time each week and they have been using it to the fullest. They practice early in the morning and again in the afternoon if they have time and their level of physical
fitness has improved dramatically. Their dedication to improving their technique to become more efficient makes them swim faster as well. I look forward to a great season in the LAI League where we hope to score more points at championships than ever before."
The LAI consists of 20 Puerto Rican universities. The teams to beat in swimming are the University of Turabo, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, University of the Sacred Heart, Catholic University and American University. "We have a solid core of swimmers, but I'd like to add more members to our team," said Tyrrell. If you are a UVI student on St. Croix or St. Thomas, please contact me at 719-7946 or dolphinscoach@islands.vi to join. Our next meet is in February 2009 so there is plenty of time to train."
UVI swam its first ever relay at the meet. Kamal Russell, Marcus Sydney, Khalid Matthew and Joey Barnwell competed in both the 200 Medley Relay and 200 Freestyle Relay events. "Up to this point we have not had the four swimmers per sex necessary to swim a relay. Doing so is a huge leap forward for us and speaks volumes about how our program is moving in the correct direction" said Tyrrell.
Kamal Russell said, "First I would like thank the Harvard swim team for participating in the first ever University Virgin Islands swim meet. I cannot thank them enough for their good sportsmanship and encouragement. We look forward to swimming with them again and appreciate the competition needed for improvement. The Harvard swim team has given us insight and inspiration towards striving to be better swimmers."
UVI swimmers swam one individual event at the meet. Results:
Swimmer_________Event____________Time
Joey Barnwell——100 Breaststroke—1:24.91
Khalid Matthew—–100 Freestyle——2:15.41
Kamal Russell——100 Backstroke—–1:28.76
Marcus Sydney——100 Freestyle——1:20.97
Amanda Weber——100 Breaststroke—1:51.45
