Tiger swim team shows vast improvment in second season

The Commerce swim team ended its second regular season Saturday at the Second Annual Falcon Invitational in Gainesville.

The Tigers finished eighteenth out of the 25 teams that competed.

Commerce head coach Sara Massey said she was pleased with the effort from swimmers this year,
“We had a great season and times continued to improve each meet,” said Massey.

The Tiger swim team grew from three to nine swimmers from the inaugural 2011-12 season.

Massey noted that the most encouraging thing she took from this season was the momentum the team will have moving forward.

“The swimmers are excited about the competition and the athletic department is fully behind our efforts,” she said. “I only imagine the sport will continue to garner more interest in the coming years.”

While Commerce did not have the numbers to field all of the relays or enter swimmers in all of the events throughout the season, Tiger swimmers frequently found themselves near the front of the fastest heats in individual competitions.

“More importantly, our times are constantly improving, and it speaks to the competitiveness of our athletes when their best times come in the biggest meets against the stiffest competition,” said Massey. “These kids have grown up swimming for the Commerce Recreation Department Tiger Sharks and are used to advancing to the state meet and competing at the highest level. It has been a lot of fun to see how intensely they prepare and then compete.”

Top individual results from the Falcon Invitational are:

Hayden McRee, fifth, 100-yard breaststroke; Ashley Harold, sixth, 500-yard freestyle and sixth, 200-yard individual medley; Kendell Moon (Middle School), second, 100-yard breaststroke and third, 50-yard freestyle. Dawson Knick, sixth, 100-yard breaststroke; Dalton Dean, tenth, 100-yard backstroke and tenth, 100-yard butterfly stroke.