EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville Breakers’ Bailey Grinter captured another first-place crown Thursday in the 50-yard freestyle (22.7) at the YMCA Nationals Short-Course Meet in Greensboro, N.C.
She placed fourth Thursday in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.40 and was seventh on Tuesday in the 200 backstroke.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Bailey was extremely excited about her finish in a conversation Thursday night after capturing another national title.
“I knew I won,” Bailey said when she touched the wall. “I was already excited and happy before I got out of the pool. I felt pretty good from the start. My reaction time off the blocks was pretty fast and I had a good turn. The 50 free has been my favorite event for a while now. The girl who was fourth in the 50 free is going to the University of Tennessee next year.
I am excited about doing long-course with the Breakers, then going on to the University of Tennessee and swimming.”
Breakers’ head coach Bob Rettle was completely elated about her national championship win.
“I’m so excited for Bailey and her family,” he said. ‘She is exactly what the YMCA is all about. Giving a young kid a swim lesson, so she knows swimming and is safe, then they keep climbing the ladder of swimming. She climbed all the way to become a national champ. It is the essence of the YMCA.”
Rettle said he and Edwardsville YMCA Executive Director Gary Niebur could not have been more excited to see such a solid leader and hometown girl capture another national title.
“Myself and everyone at the Y is so excited today,” he said. “Gary Niebur is such an amazing friend of the team. We are the Y. We, in Edwardsville, are everything the Y concept is about. We are so privileged to be able to serve such a vast spectrum of the community both with the Edwardsville Y locations and the Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center for training and meets. Gary and I are so proud of what this YMCA is about. It is special and unlike any other Y in the Midwest.”
April and Greg Grinter, her mom and dad, couldn’t be more proud of their daughter for another remarkable swimming accomplishment.
“They dove off the blocks with a great start and were all together at the 25,” April said. “At the 25, it was so close, but at the last 10 yards from the end of the pool she was out in front and she touched the wall ahead. She took her goggles off and had a big grin and Bob was crying and gave her a hug. It was so exciting for us.”
The TCAY Tidalwaves' Matthew Clancy finished 22nd overall with a time of 51.78 in the 100 boys backstroke on Wednesday.
Tidalwaves' head coach Nancy Miller was excited about Clancy’s finish and at 15 sees the Alton High School student having nothing but a bright future in swimming ahead with his talent and determination.
More like this:
