Wednesday’s home opener for the Vance Aquatics Club was just like the two road meets that started the season: a team loss but dozens of personal bests.
The Barracudas lost 254-158 to the Homestead Heights Hammerheads at the Aycock Recreation Complex to fall to 0-3 during the five-meet Durham Summer Swim League season. Still, though the team has lost 11 consecutive DSSL dual meets since 2003, Vance Aquatics continues to show improvement under coaches Wendi and Chris Leas.
The club put 28 swimmers in the pool Wednesday, the most it has mustered in years, and 23 of them combined to post 43 official personal bests.
Four Barracudas won three individual events each, the maximum they could enter: Katelynn Ray (6-and-under freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke); Kaitlin Polak (11-12 freestyle, backstroke and butterfly); Brain Hicks (13-14 freestyle, backstroke and butterfly); and Karissa Thomas (15-18 freestyle, backstroke and butterfly).
Other winning Barracudas were Julleah Norton (9-10 breaststroke), Sarah Blackwell (9-10 backstroke) and Lydia Harrop (13-14 backstroke).
Vance Aquatics returns to the pool next Wednesday for its only other home meet of the season, against Five Oaks at 6 p.m. at Aycock. The Barracudas close out the regular season a week later at Treyburn.