City Meet Champions – Daniel Island Flying Fish

Daniel Island Flying Fish coach Rose Van Metre had an inkling that her team would have a successful 2023 season because of the squad’s depth.

 

As the team made final preparations for the Coastal Carolina Aquatic Association’s City Meet, she knew her team had the potential to finish second in the ultimate meet of the season, a two-day event that was held at the North Charleston Aquatic Center.

 

Standing between the Flying Fish and the top spot was the Snee Farm club, a team that had talent and the mystique of winning eight straight City Meets.

 

But when the final scores were announced, Van Metre and the Flying Fish were pleasantly surprised. Twenty years after the program was born, the Flying Fish claimed their first City Meet Championship.

 

The Flying Fish took home the championship with 2,832.5 points to top Snee Farm, which tallied 2,818 points. Northbridge was third in the 18-team meet with 2,567.

 

The Flying Fish boys 9-10 age group and girls 9-10 won the overall championship for their age category as did the boys 13-14 age group.  And, the team took top honors in overall girls and overall boys. 

 

“I was very excited about our 10-U group,” Van Metre said. “But you never know how the 7-8 group will do because they are not used to competing in that type of venue.”

 

Still, the Flying Fish led after the first day, which was typical of past meets. But on the second day, the older swimmers came through, showed mettle and talent to lead the Flying Fish to the championship.

 

“We had a great dual season,” Van Metre said. “But we competed in the duals with a lot of different combinations, a lot of different swimmers. You can’t put your best swimmers in every event because everyone wants to swim.”

 

Depth was the key. The Flying Fish had two swimmers in each event on Friday and Saturday.

 

“It was the second swimmer in each event that was the key,” Van Metre said. “We had one swimmer who was seeded 14th and they finished third. It’s things like that you look for. We swam lights out on Saturday.”

 

“It was a nail-biter the entire meet,” Van Metre continued. “The most important thing was to keep the momentum up. We were so pumped up for every event.”