Sports Editor

The Troy Tiger Sharks Swim Team recently completed their season at the 2001 Alabama Recreation and Parks Association State Swimming and Diving Meet held in Dothan on July 26-28.

Although the team was unable to bring home any first place finishes, Tiger Sharks head coach Bill Gauspohl considered this season to the be the "best yet."

"We had a number of kids that have vastly improved since last year," Gauspohl said at the Tiger Sharks end-of-the-season

pool and pizza party held on Thursday. "There were a great number of our swimmers that shaved seconds off of their times and in swimming that makes a difference."

Bill Chinberg was the highest finisher for Troy, placing third on Friday in the boy’s 15-18 year-old, 50-yard freestyle. Chinberg’s time in the event was 23.25. He came in fifth on Saturday in the 50-yard butterfly (26.12) and fourth also in 100-yard freestyle (53.00).

In boy’s 8 and under, Gaige Garrett and Conner Ingalls finished seventh and eighth in the 100-yards and Ingalls came in fourth place with a time of 22.68 in the 25-yard breaststroke. On Saturday, Garrett placed ninth in the 25-yard butterfly (21.76).

In the 9-10 year-olds category, Troy’s Thomas Dent was ninth in the boy’s 50-yard butterfly, but in the 50-yard backstroke Dent came in at fifth place with a time of 41.23. Dent was fourteenth in the boy’s 50-yard freestyle on Friday.

James Blickenstaff finished fifteenth in boy’s 8 and under, 25-yard freestyle and ninth on Saturday in the 25-yard backstroke with a time of 22.72. Blickenstaff, Garrett and Ingalls placed ninth, eleventh and eighteenth, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle.

In 13-14 year-old competition, Garrett Beeler was twentieth in 50-yard freestyle. He was thirteenth in the 50-yard backstroke.

In the boy’s 8 and under, 100-yard medley relay, the team of Blickenstaff, Ingalls, Garrett and Kyle Daugherty came in seventh on Friday with a time of 1:33.72. In the 100-yard freestyle relay, held on Saturday, the same team came in sixth (1:15:84), while a team made up of Holt Ingalls, Storm Garrett, Jordan Grieff and Ethan Davis was nineteenth (1:36.78).

In girls events, Bethany Welch was seventeenth in the girl’s 13-14 year-old, 50-yard freestyle with a time of 33.20. Hayden Dunn was fourteenth in the 8 and under, 25-yard butterfly. 15-year-old Alyssa Beeler placed fifteenth in the 50-yard backstroke, while Rachel Gauspohl was also fifteenth in the 8 and under, 50-yard freestyle.

Gauspohl, Dunn, Emily Dent and Erin Jordan were twenty-second in the 8 and under, 100-yard freestyle relay and Welch, Gwendolyn Spivey, Kimberly Powell and Brittany Davis were fifteenth in girls 13-14 year-old 200 yard freestyle relay.