YMCA team looking for success

YMCA team looking for success
By Sydney L. Murray
Register Herald
September 03, 2014

EATON — Mason McCargish, 17, and Maddie Baker, 11, have been swimming year-round for the past few years and will continue swimming on the Preble County YMCA Piranhas Swim Team this winter season.

Maddie and Mason also swim for the Preble County Stingrays in the summer.

Last March, McCargish competed at the YMCA National Championship and Baker competed in the AA Championships.

Coach David Montgomery said he hopes to be able to get 75 swimmers on the team this year, up from 35 swimmers last year.

Baker has been swimming for about five years and said she enjoys swimming “because it’s a unique sport, it’s really fun and I’m good at it and I like winning.”

McCargish has been swimming about 10 years and said he enjoys swimming because he has practiced enough to be decent and said it’s satisfying to be successful. He also swims for Eaton High School. He said going to meets helps to keep him going and motivated to practice and said his times improved a lot when he started swimming year-round.

This season, Baker said she hopes to keep improving, get better and faster and to make it to YMCA Zones and the finals in AA.

McCargish said he hopes to qualify to nationals in at least five events and get to the finals in at least one.

Montgomery said the winter season will last from September to April, with the children able to practice one to four days a week.

He said the YMCA has put forth $12,000 worth of training equipment for the team. He said he wants to get as many kids as possible to enjoy swimming and get faster and said the sport can help build their confidence.

“Swimming is a team sport as well as an individual sport,” Montgomery said. He says has the kids swim against their own times and he doesn’t worry about first, second or third place.

The team is open to kids ages 5-18, who will compete in the Southwest Ohio YMCA Swim League.

There are three age groups for the team. Children ages 5 to 11 are silver, 12-18 are gold and those who also swim for their high school team are in the H.S. gold group. Costs vary depending on the group the child is in, and how many days per week they are swimming.

There will be a parent meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4, at the Preble County YMCA.