Swim team in Glasgow

The Malta Swim Team is set to host their annual meet at the City Pool this weekend. The two day event starts this Saturday, July 1 and ends the following day, Sunday, July 2.

The team participated in the Glasgow meet last weekend from Saturday, June 24 to Sunday, June 25 and took seventh overall.

"The meet went very well," said Malta Swim Team Head Coach Cassie Pratt. "It was a little bit bigger than all of the other ones but Glasgow is also a mid-point for a lot of teams. It was a good meet; they ran it pretty smoothly with not too many hiccups."

The team was led by Kylie Hunter and MaRae Small who scored 36 points apiece in their respective classes. Ella Schye scored 32 points in her first meet of the season and Jahmiah Huffman LaBrie scored 31 points in his events.

"A lot of people improved on the second day, not just with times but with placing upwards," Coach Pratt said. "Kyleigh Hunter was one of them. I was very happy with her performance. In her 50 fly she was sitting second on Saturday but got the win on Sunday. I was very proud of her."

The team was able to welcome back some senior swimmers including Schye.

"Ella Schye won first place in her 100 freestyle with a time of 1:15.89," Coach Pratt said. "She was beating the other girls by five seconds. We have a couple of our seniors back, which should be very good for the Malta meet."

Coach Pratt has been changing her approach as the season reaches its mid-point.

"It's about our mid-point of the season and it's a more hands on approach that I like to get in the water with them and work on more technique and conditioning so that it's not just lap swim, it's getting down to the fine tuning of their strokes."

At the Malta meet, Coach Pratt expects her team to be the biggest it will be all season, given it is their home meet.

"I don't see why not all of my swimmers could be here, so we should have a pretty full team of 30 kids or so," Coach Pratt said.

She expects the Malta Relay teams to have a strong showing.

"We can expect more relay teams this weekend," Coach Pratt said. "I know my kids are excited for that."

She also expects things to run smooth en lieu of the possibility that the water project is currently obstructing the streets around the pool.

"Malta's meets always run very fast, very smooth," Coach Pratt said. "Our parents are very good at running this meet. They have fine-tuned it and it's my favorite meet for sure."