The Poarch Creek Swim Team (PCST) traveled to Pensacola, Fla. last weekend to compete in the 2018 Southeastern Region IV Championships.

The swimmers who attended were Sophia Ikner, Aubree Wiggins, Hannah Johnson, Tiffany Gookin and Kadence Bailey. The swimmers competed both Saturday and Sunday.

Sophia Ikner, daughter of Danielle Sanspree and Heath Ikner, competed in eight events.  She swam a personal best in her 25-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle events.

“She continues to improve with every day and is very particular about her strokes,” PCST coach Sarah Allen said. “Sophia says she enjoys it and wants to continue learning as much as she can so that she can get better. She will be swimming in her first long course meet in April.”

Aubree Wiggins, daughter of Tysen Rolin and Taylor Wiggins, has been swimming since she was 5 years old and has just gotten better in all of her strokes. Aubree dropped time in six of the events that she competed in. She swam some personal best times and also had no disqualifications on Sunday.

Hannah Johnson, daughter of Chad and Monica Johnson, had a great weekend of swimming with swimming personal best times in all of her events. Hannah is a distance swimmer and did amazing this past weekend, and will focus on those distance swims in the near future, Allen said.

Tiffany Gookin, daughter of Todd and Martha Gookin, has been swimming since she was 8 years old. She has been on the team for five years and is the oldest swimmer on the team. She will move up to the 13-14 age group in April when she competes at the BEST (Biloxi Elite Swim Team) invitational long course meet.

“Every swimmer this weekend did a great job and they are striving to get better with practice and time,” Allen said. “In order to be a great swimmer you have to have heart and dedication and the drive to make yourself practice. It is not like other sports where you are working as a team to win a game. A swimmer is competing against the clock to get faster times in order to move on to compete at the National level. Our swimmers are doing their best and getting better with time. I hope that as our team gets better that other Tribal Members and First Generations kids will join.”