Here’s some news — and photos — about the Carter Center Aquatic Marlins 9-10 year-old boys relay team. Jim Lowe provides a photo gallery, which you can view in the slideshow above or in this gallery format, and Joe Russo Sr. provides this account:

The CCA Marlins headed to Newport News to compete in the Age Group championships last week. This meet is a time qualifying meet swam over four days for 14 and under. The pool conditions were hot with the air temperature reaching 100 plus which made many parents wish they were swimmers. There were so many best swims and highlights but we have to set up the story for what turned out to be an amazing two evenings for the 9-10 boys relay team. The CCA Marlins boy’s 9 and 10 year old consisted of a total of 5 boys. They were paired off in a relay (top 4) with team Nova that has 30 plus 9 and 10 year old boys. Coach Eva selected the top 4 of our group for the first relay and they faced off against the top seeded team Nova. With the coaches and the parents screaming to the point that surrounding folks were holding their ears the team CCA Marlins won the first relay and The State title in the 400 IM event. The following day the relay was a 400 free and again we were faced with the same odds. The boys who adore their coach “Eva Steib” put their hand on her and said Coach Eva we are going to win this for you which brought tears to her eyes. Swimmers take you mark and the light went off in what looked to be a sure defeat for our team BUT the pure guts our kids showed was awesome. Not only did we come from behind and win, the boys shattered the team record by some 30 seconds to come home with the State title in both relays. My boys have been swimming for several years and I can honestly say that this was one of the highlights of the many events I have attended. As a CCA Marlin parent I fell free speaking for all of our families of just how proud we are our team and our CCA family.

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