Clippers Make a Splash at Columbia Swim Meet

More than 500 swimmers competed in the Columbia Aquatics Association’s swim meet February 19–20 in hopes of improving their swim times to be seeded in next month's championship meets.

The competition took place at the Howard Community College Athletic and Fitness Center, where 579 swimmers, ages 6 through 17, participated, representing 17 swim clubs across the state, including the Clippers.

The Clippers swim team of the Columbia Aquatics Association (CAA) is a competitive and instructional swim team of more than 300 swimmers—students from elementary to high school—who hope to make a splash in the competitive world of swimming.

One member, Morgan Liberto, a fifth-grader at in Elkridge, loves competing. As the swimmers lined up for the next event, Liberto and her friends psyched themselves up before a particularly grueling 100-yard race.

Before joining Clippers four years ago, Liberto participated in the Columbia Association’s summer neighborhood swim team. Her mother, Tara Liberto, cited their Columbia Association's summer swim team, the Long Reach Marlins, as central in motivating her daughter to consider swimming year-round.

And the ribbons and trophies haven’t slowed down since then. Morgan Liberto is looking forward to her next swim meet, the Maryland State Championships to be held March 3–6 at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. This will be her second year at states, and she'll be competing in five individual events including her favorite, the 100-yard butterfly, as well as two relays.

The commitment of Morgan Liberto and her fellow Clippers swimmers is significant. Younger swimmers like Morgan Liberto attend practices three weekday afternoons and one weekend morning. They emulate the dedicated and talented older Clippers athletes, whose practice groups swim and do dry land work up to six days a week at the Columbia Swim Center and the Supreme Sports Club.

The diligence of the athletes and their coaches, 70 percent of whom are former Clippers swimmers, is paying off not only individually, but for the whole swim club. Recently, CAA was awarded the bronze level for Club Excellence 2011 from USA Swimming.

According to Jeff Scrivener, CAA head coach, the award is given to clubs that achieve a high level of athlete performance in long course competition and a standard of organizational success.

Scrivener, a former Clipper swimmer, said that the team’s mission is to help each swimmer get to the highest point that he/she can achieve while “instilling the values of respect, teamwork, confidence and self-discipline in our staff and swimmers. We really are one big family and help each other out.”

Living their mission has resulted in dedicated swimmers earning accolades at the state level, national level, and at the Junior Olympic Games.

Founded in the late 1960s, the Clippers began its present form in 1987 with 30 swimmers, increasing membership and levels of training each year. Swim meets, such as the one held this weekend, have grown so popular that the Clippers team administrator, Susan McDonald, had to turn down some Maryland teams’ participation because of timing limitations.

Swimming is a year-round sport to Clippers athletes, and their dedication and enthusiasm is contagious.

As Morgan Liberto put it: “I love to swim, see my friends, and compete at meets. I also love thinking about things to try to make me swim faster. But most important, swimming is fun!”