Seven swimmers compete at regional meet

Seven swimmers from the Pickens County YMCA Piranhas Swim Team competed at the 2016 Upper Southeast Regional YMCA Championship Meet at the Middle Tyger YMCA in Spartanburg County March 18-20. Swimmers must meet a qualifying time standard to compete in the Upper Southeast Regional YMCA Championship Meet. Pickens County swimmers qualifying for and swimming at the Spartanburg meet included: Avery Baker, 9; Tamara Boysworth, 12; Ivy Hyder, 9; Caroline Lucas, 11; Addie Sanders, 10; Davia Simmons, 10; and Mia Yousey, 10. The Upper Southeast YMCA region is comprised of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. “I’m very proud of all the swimmers who qualified for and swam at regionals,” said Larry McMahan, head coach of the Pickens County Piranhas Swim Team. “It is a testament to an entire season’s worth of hard work just to qualify for the meet, but we also had some swimmers who did very well there.”  The 200-yard medley relay team of Simmons (backstroke), Yousey (breast stroke), Hyder (butterfly) and Sanders (freestyle) finished sixth in the region and took 4.22 seconds off their previous best time. Ivy finished sixth in the 50-yard freestyle, and Simmons placed second in the 50-yard freestyle. Boysworth reduced her previous best time in the 400 individual medley by 13 seconds and placed 12th in the region.  The swim team was also coached by Rachel Rahn at the regional meet. With the winter season concluded, the Pickens County YMCA Piranhas will take a short break and resume swim team practice on April 4. The Piranhas practice every weekday at 4:15 p.m. at the Pickens branch of the YMCA. The swim team accepts new swimmers all season long, no matter the level of their swimming ability. For more information on how to get a young person involved with the Piranhas swim team, contact the Pickens County YMCA at (864) 878-8380 or visit www.pcymca.net/swimteam.php.