By By Rocky Higginbotham/The Meridian Star
July 14, 2001
Related stories and photos, pages 1A, 1B.
The Meridian Invitational Swim Meet got under way Friday at Highland Park, and a pair of squads are already off to impressive starts.
The Mississippi Aquatic Dogfish and the Delta State University Aquatics grabbed the lead with 115 and 85 points, respectively, through the first 14 events of the Long Course portion of the meet which is the final qualifying meet prior to the State Long Course Championships.
More than 300 swimmers are in town for the event, which continues today at 8:15 a.m., and wraps up Sunday beginning at the same time. The South Mississippi Surf was third in the Long Course team standings with 63 points through 14 events, while the host Meridian Swim Association was fourth in the nine-team race with 49 points.
The MSA did win one Long Course event, as Michael Gray won the Boys' 400m Intermediate with a time of 5:16.27.
Christie Vaughn was fourth in the Girls' 400m Intermediate with a time of 6:01.6; Elliot Clark was third in the Boys' 11-12 400m Free with a time of 6:15.25; and Holly Corbitt placed fifth in a pair of events finishing in 22:31.07 in the Girls 1500m Free and in 3:04.59 in the Girls 11-12 200m Intermediate.
Friday's action also included the Short Course Invitational, which was won by the Tupelo Aquatic Club with a total of 429 points.
The Mississippi Aquatic Dogfish were second with 323 points, while the Natchez Swim Team finished third with 298.
MSA, which was fifth overall in this 12-team event with 101 points, got most of its points from 7-year-old Anna Eifert who won the Girls' 7 25m Fly with a time of 27.33 and was second in two other events.
Rocky Higginbotham is a sports writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at rhigginbotham@themeridianstar.com.