Records Broken at 40th Annual Bowie Swim Competition, BBT Takes First

The Belair Bath and Tennis (BBT) swim won the Bowie City Meet Championships earlier this month, collecting 618 points on their way to victory at Pointer Ridge Swim and Racquet.

Trailing by 95 points was the team placing second, Whitehall Pool and Tennis—who scored 523 points—followed by Belair Swim and Racquet (BSR) with 491 points and the hosting team Pointer Ridge Swim and Racquet (PRSR) with 242 points.

Several team and pool records were broken during the meet, including Annie Hayburn of Whitehall Pool and Tennis who broke a City Meet record with a time of 32.65 seconds in the 50-meter backstroke for the 13-14 year old girls bracket. Hayburn also broke the Pointer Ridge pool’s record as well as her team’s record for the 50-meter butterfly in the same division.

In the 50-meter backstroke race for the boys 15-18 bracket, Charles Brother from BBT clocked in at 32.39 seconds and Tommy Masino from BSR just in front of him with a time of 32.07 seconds. They both broke their team records respectively.

One more pool record was broken in individual competition with Thomas Williams of BBT coming in at 29.64 seconds in the 50-meter backstroke race for boys 15-18.

The swim team from Pointer Ridge turned their pool into a Mardi Gras party, decorating the pool with balloons and streamers and providing masks for participants and guests.

The team even entered the pool donning masks and Mardi Gras beads to “When the Saints Go Marching In,” led by coaches John DeHenzel and Melissa Eloshway.

BSR showed their team spirit as Hercules and gods and goddesses from Greek mythology, BBT went with a Star Wars Theme and Whitehall entered as football players and cheerleaders.

Several relay competition records were broken as well, most notably both the boys and girls 18 and under teams from Belair Bath and Tennis’ beat the city records in the 200-meter medley relay.

The record for the boys was previously 1:57:58, and this year’s team for BBT—comprised of Steven Rigby, Charles Brother, Dennis Witol and Thomas Williams—came in a few hundredths of a second ahead at 1:57:20.

The BSR boys team for the relay broke their team record coming in at 1:59:61, taking second place in the race.

The BSR girls beat the original Bowie record of 2:23:74 with their team—Caitlin Magaw, Mary Wenzel, Lisa Deklau and Geordie Enoch—coming in with plenty of time to spare at 2:19:59.

Editor's Note: This article was updated to show the correct team winning the 200-meter medley relay and clarify team costume choices.