After walking away with top girls’ and boys’ trophies for preparatory schools at last weekend’s 25th staging of the Mayberry All-Island Swim Meet, Wendy Lee, coach of Hillel Academy, was delighted that the hard work and dedication of her young swimmers continue to reap success.

Hillel Academy’s Arush Rochlani was one of the standouts of the meet after taking home the boys 9-10 50m freestyle gold medal.

“I feel like I have won the lottery,” Lee told the Jamaica Observer.

“It is a very, very amazing feeling, mostly because the prep school girls’ division is extremely competitive, and at no time did I feel confident in the win. Before the final relays, we were actually tied with Mona, and the points difference was only eight between the top two or three schools, so to win that, it feels very, very good,” she said.

“It means that all the working out efforts that we put in and in our swim programme are continuing to reap the rewards. But Hillel has a strong tradition of being one of the best teams in swimming, and the fact that we can year after year continue to produce some of Jamaica’s best athletes shows that it is never a one-off, but it is because of the hard work and dedication of the athletes and the coaches, and just the general, well-structured school programme.”

Lee gave an outline of the focus placed on Hillel Academy’s swim programme.

“Swimming is a part of our physical education (PE) curriculum, and all of our students learn how to swim as early as kindergarten, and by grade one, all of our students can swim. From there, the swimmers chose whether to train with the school or with their club. With the foundation they get at Hillel Academy, a lot of them are recruited to the swim clubs in Jamaica.

“I am very proud of what we have achieved, and I hope to continue our winning for the two meets that are coming up, the Burger King and then the final meet of the year,” she said.

With approximately 80 events held on day one, the high school and tertiary athletes thrilled spectators with intense races. In the girls 15-16 100m ‘freestyle, Aliyah Heaven of Campion College came in first with a winning time of 1:05.52. In the boys’ section, Charles McIntosh of St George’s College won the boys 15-16 100m freestyle in a time of 58.17 seconds.

Lia Forrestor of the University of Technology won the tertiary equivalent of the girls 100m freestyle. Wolmer’s Boys’ came out victorious in the boys 17 and over 200m medley relay, while St Andrew’s High took the trophy for the girls’ equivalent.

Christanya Shirley of Immaculate Conception High won the girls’ 13-14 50m breaststroke in 36.02 seconds, while Benjamin Davis of Cornwall College won the boys’ 13-14 50m breaststroke in 32.64 seconds. Immaculate Conception and Wolmer’s Boys’ won the top girls’ and boys’ school trophies.