Bangor Y Barracudas

BANGOR – Four of the area’s top swimmers headed toward warmer temperatures in Raleigh, N.C., on Nov. 30 for a three-day senior national YMCA championship meet held Dec. 1-3.

Tara Nitardy, Mariah Reading, Erin Thomas and Ryan Trafton, from the Bangor Y Barracuda swim team, qualified for events at the meet with times they swam over the past eight months.

Nitardy, Reading and Thomas swam six events each, and Trafton swam four.

Hosted by one of the largest YMCA swimming programs in the country, the YMCA of the Triangle Area, the meet is an annual event that draws more than 400 swimmers, representing more than 20 clubs from across the eastern and mid-western United States.

For Skip Nitardy, head coach of the Bangor Y Barracudas, the meet was an important mid-season test of the progress his swimmers have made and an opportunity for them to race against national level competitors.

The Bangor Y Barracuda swim team has grown from 80 swimmers to more than 100 this year. In the midst of the competitive winter season, the coaching staff is enjoying a strong start to the season and anticipates a solid season that will culminate with state, regional and national level competition through March 2007.

For information about the Y Barracudas swim team, interested swimmers should call Skip Nitardy, head coach and senior director of aquatics and competitive swimming, at 941-2808, or e-mail barracudas@bangorY.org.