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York YMCA swimming strong again at Orlando


Nine kids from the York YMCA swim team traveled to Florida for the Orlando Grand Prix last weekend and once again did very well against international competition.

York Y coach Michael Brooks sent the following information via email from the meet, which involved swimmers from Canada, Hungary, Mexico, and Latin America.

For starters, the York Y girls foursome of Courtney Harnish, Meghan Small, Emily Ilgenfritz and Niki Price won all three relays in the a 50-meter long course pool. The relay times were as follows: 400 free relay in 3:52.77, 800 free relay in 8:21.24 and the 400 medley relay in 4:21.39.

Harnish won five individual medals, including her third-place time of 4:12.41 in the 400 free, which was the fourth fastest time ever swam by a girl 14 & under. She also earned bronze in the 800 free (8:39.11), was fifth in the 200 free (2:01.80), sixth in the 200 backstroke (2:15.54), and seventh in the 400 individual medley (4:53.54).

Small scored a fourth-place medal in the 200 IM with her swim of 2:16.30 and Brooks notes that all of the above times were faster than the Olympic Trials qualifying standards in 2012.

Small also went 2:02.87 in the 200 free (10th place), 1:03.56 in the 100 back (11th), 1:02.77 in the 100 fly (12th) and 2:20.52 in the 200 back (16th) after going 2:18.75 in preliminaries.

Brooks also mentioned that in her first big meet, 13-year-old Leah Braswell placed 20th in the 800 free with a 9:07.87.