CHARLOTTE, N.C., February 3. THE Marlins Of Raleigh (MOR) finished 5th out of over 40 teams at the NC Sr. Swimming Championships held in Charlotte Jan. 29-Feb, 2. The meet included all the top Sr. Swimmers from NC as well as a couple of teams from South Carolina. MOR finished 5th overall and 3rd in the girls with 302 points. <\/p>\n
MAC from Charlotte won the meet. Along the way, MOR won 2 events and achieved 3 Sr. National Qualifying times while swimming unrested and unshaved. Jenna Rinaldi won the 200 Breaststroke in a Sr. National Qualifying time of 2:17.52. She also finished 2nd in the 100 Breast with a Sr. National time of 1:05.18. Kelsy Smith added a victory in the 200 Backstroke in a Sr. National Qualifying time of 2:02.84. <\/p>\n
MOR had 4 other swimmers get finals swims led by Kirsten Smith who finished 3rd in the 400 IM. Suzanne Figuers swam strong Breaststrokes finishing 12th in the 100 Breast. Amber Mozingo added an 11th place finish in the 1650 Free and Brian Parks swam to an 18th place finish in the 200 Backstroke.<\/p>\n
MOR's relays were strong as well as Rinaldi, Kirsten and Kelsy Smith were joined by Leslie Sherrill to finish 3rd in both the 800 Free Relay and 400 Medley Relay to go along with a 6th place finish in the 400 Free Relay.<\/p>\n
The NC Sr. Champs is the last tune up before next week's Conoco Phillips US Sr. Nationals to be held in Orlando Feb. 10-14. MOR's Jenna Rinaldi, Kelsy Smith, and Kirsten Smith will attend the meet which will be conducted in Long Course Meters (50 meter pool). <\/p>\n
"Our swimmers did a good job training despite the snow of last week. It showed at the meet where we were particularly strong on the 2nd half of our races. We were also excited to finish 5th since we swam a reduced number of events due to next week's nationals. Our relays really came through with good team efforts as well. We now are eager for next week's nationals as well as our state championships and other big meets coming up in February \/ March.", said MOR coach Paul Silver.<\/p>\n