Jillian Crooks, 15, Sets Four Cayman Records at CARIFTA Championships

Photo Courtesy: Carifta 2014 Aruba

Jillian Crooks, 15, Sets Four Cayman Records at CARIFTA Championships

Jillian Crooks, the Tokyo Olympian who is still two months shy of her 16th birthday, set four national records at the 2022 CARIFTA Championships this week in Barbados.

Crooks now owns six Cayman Islands senior records despite still being a youth swimmer. In addition to the 100 free record she set at the Tokyo Olympics, she added four records at the meet this week. Crooks won the girls’ 15-17 50 freestyle in 26.43 seconds. She added a victory in the 50 backstroke (30.02) and the 200 back (2:22.17).

Crooks, who swam last fall at Homer High School in Alaska, also set the mark in the 100 butterfly at 1:03.67. She added a win in the 100 free (57.70) and finished second in the 200 free. Crooks was part of three relays that set Cayman records, including one meet record in the 800 free relay. That squad – with Harper Barrowman, Kathryn Lambert-Wragg and Kyra Rabess – went 8:42.17, lopping 3.5 seconds off the mark set in 2018 by Aruba.

The annual CARIFTA Championships brings together the top youth swimmers in the Caribbean, competing over four days in the 11-12, 13-14 and 15-17 age group for boys and girls. The meet has served as a launching point for numerous Olympians and American collegians.

Adara Stoddard of Barbados took down two national records. She set the fastest time in her nation’s history in the 100 breaststroke at 1:16.93. She added the mark in the 200 breast at 2:43.34. She won the latter event in the 15-17 age group, to go with a victory in the 400 individual medley. She also finished third in the 100 breast and 200 IM.

The Jamaican girls contingent had a stellar showing. Sabrina Lyn set a meet record in winning the 15-17 100 fly with a time of 1:02.14, edging out Crooks. Her time took four tenths out of a prestigious meet record, which had held since 2008 by Olympian Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace.

Lyn combined with Mackenzie Headley, Morgan Cogle and Leanna Wainwright on a pair of CARIFTA Championships relay records. The 400 free relay went 3:58.87, downing the meet record set in 2018 by the Bahamas. Jamaica also went 1:47.91 in the 200 free relay, downing a Vanderpool-Wallace-led mark from 2008.

Headley set the record in the 15-17 50 fly, going 27.79. It downed the mark of 28.00 set in 2018 by Curacao’s Chade Nersicio. Second in the race, even with Nersicio’s record, was fellow Jamaican Zaneta Alvaranga, who had set the 13-14 meet record at the last installment of the CARIFTA Games in 2019.

In the 13-14 girls division, Cayman’s Lila Higgo took down three meet records. She won the 100 back in 1:04.69, the 50 back in 30.19 and 200 back in 2:23.33. Two of the records had belonged to Danielle Titus, including a reduction of nearly a second off the 100 back mark.

In the 11-12 races, Barbados’s Heidi Stoute won the girls 400 free in 4:36.93, taking nearly five seconds out of the record set in 2010 by Tyla Martin.

Two boys relay marks fell. The Bahamas squad won the 13-14 400 medley relay in 4:07.96, with the squad of Donald Saunders, Caden Wells, Asher Johnson and Caleb Ferguson. That’s two seconds quicker than the record set in 2017 by Bahamas. Trinidad & Tobago’s 15-17 200 free relay went 1:34.96 to take down a record, with Nikoli Blackman, Aaron Stuart, Zarek Wilson and Johann-Matthew Matamoro.

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