"We had 55 personal best times in the City Meet for the 89 individual events we swam and not a single swimmer got disqualified," said first-year head coach Rose Van Metre.

Team league representative Rosie Stieby echoed the sentiment. "Our coaching staff has done an incredible job of teaching many new swimmers proper technique and training. The increased training before City Meet helped 62 percent of our city meet swimmers attain personal best times," Stieby added.

Snee Farm continued its domination of the City Meet Championships, taking first for the 19th straight year. Competition between the top teams was extremely tight. Snee Farm finished the meet with 2,865 points for a 156-point lead over Parkshore (2,709 points), the closest margin of victory since the league adopted a new scoring system in 2000. The margin between third and fourth place was even closer, as Dunes West topped Coosaw Creek by only 6.5 points to claim third place.

In addition to the strong team performance, the Flying Fish recorded several outstanding individual and relay performances at the city meet.

Top 10 finishers for the team in the eight and under girls’ age group included:

Summer Ricciardi – 4^th in freestyle, 2^nd in butterfly; Olivia Kinsinger – 7^th in freestyle, 5^th in butterfly; Ryan Rothkopf – 4^th in backstroke; Maddie Santi - 6^th in backstroke; Emma Lawrence – 6^th place in breaststroke.

Top 10 finishers for the eight and under boys’ age group included:

Ben Kramer (8 and under) – 3^rd in butterfly, 10^th in backstroke; John Paul Arney (8 and under) – 8^th in butterfly and 8^th in backstroke; Christian Drummond – 9^th in breaststroke; Joseph Garvey – 10^th in breaststroke.

Top 10 finishers in the 9-10 girls’ age group included:

Maddie Conway – 9^th in breaststroke.

Top 10 finishers for the team in the 9-10 boys’ age group included:

Lawson Freeman (9-10) – 1^st in freestyle, 6^th in butterfly, and 3^rd in the individual medley; Kurt Stieby – 8^th in breaststroke

Top 10 finishers in the 13-14 boys’ age group included:

Ben Detar (13-14)– 1^st in freestyle, 3^rd in backstroke; 4^th in the individual medley; Will Kramer (13-14) – 9^th in butterfly and 10^th in the individual medley.

The top 10 mixed medley relay teams in all age groups included: 8 and under team of Ryan Rothkopf (backstroke) Christian Drummond (breaststroke), Ben Kramer (butterfly) and Summer Ricciardi (freestyle) - 4^th place; 9 and 10 team of Mirren Arney (backstroke), Kurt Stieby (breaststroke), Katie Ryan (butterfly) and Lawson Freeman (freestyle) – 6^th place; 11 and 12 team of Sydney Kramer (backstroke), Josh Glass (breaststroke), Carly Detar (butterfly) and Ben Guthrie (freestyle) - 10^th place; 13 and 14 team of Ben Detar (backstroke), Ashleigh Van Metre (breaststroke), Will Kramer (butterfly) and Taylor Schilling (freestyle) -10^th place.

The top-10 free relay teams included: 8-and-under girls’ team of Olivia Kinsinger, Tori Leigh, Maddie Santi and Summer Ricciardi – 5^th place; 9-10 girls’ team of Mirren Arney, Jessica Wright, Maddie Conway and Katie Ryan – 7^th place; 9-10 boys’ of Kurt Stieby, Jake Adams, Jackson Detar, and Lawson Freeman – 4^th place; 11-12 boys’ team of Josh Glass, Doug Stieby, Jake Meyer, and Ben Guthrie – 7^th place; 13-14 boys’ team of Will Kramer, Francis Boykin, Jake Gregory, and Ben Detar – 6^th place.

The team finished the regular season in second place in their division with a 6-2 record. The team rebounded to avenge an early season loss to Creekside by defeating them late in the season, 348-186. As a result of the team’s eighth-place finish and the loss of two teams in the league, it is unclear how the divisions will be arranged for next season, although the Flying Fish are certain to move up at least one division.

"As for our season, it has been fantastic," Van Metre said. "We have a wonderful team of coaches who stressed not only swimming but sportsmanship, teamwork and fun. We swam hard and played hard this season. We won six meets, were undefeated at our home pool, and our times and strokes improved as the season progressed. Our big sister/brother/ - little sister/brother was a success and the team also fit in many extra activities including movies, bowling, a visit to a water park and a Riverdog’s baseball game. It was truly a dream season."

At its annual end of season banquet the coaches also awarded swimmers from each age group with most improved swimmer awards, coaches’ awards, and team spirit awards.

The most improved swimmer awards went to Annie Lawrence, Ben Kinsinger, Jensy Geilfuss, John Paul Arney, Hayley Perryman, Hayley Loiselle, Caleb Wilhite, Cora Petyak, Elliot Erickson, Jake Meyer, Drew Loiselle, Lacy Alderson, Nicole Cooper, Carl Geilfuss, and Katie Braga.

The coaches’ awards went to: Claire Greenburg, Parker Smith, Emma Lawrence, Joseph Garvey, Mirren Arney, Kurt Stieby, Regan Van Metre, Ben Guthrie, Taylor Schilling, Alex Benner, Francis Boykin, Cassie Horton, Melissa Roberts and Brian Van Metre.

The Flying Fish Team Spirit Awards went to Liam Ryan, Gabby Meyer, Alex Benner, Sydney Kramer, Carly Detar, Francis Boykin, John Clemit, and Brian Van Metre.

The team graduates two seniors, both of whom received a scholarship from the CCAA. Kathryn Braga will head off to University of Tennessee and John Clemit will be attending nearby Charleston Southern.

"As for next year, we will have our work cut out for us as we earned our way into a higher league in CCAA by our eighth-place finish in the City Meet," Van Metre said. "But we have so much momentum from this dream season I am already looking forward to working with the swimmers next year."