By By Ryan Satcher / staff writer
July 11, 2003
Swimmers from around the state will be in Meridian this weekend for the State Games Of Mississippi/Meridian Invitational Swim Meet.
Meridian hosts its invitational meet each year and this year the State Games have also gotten on board.
Coaches have a lot of meets to go to each year and were unable to come to Meridian for both the invitational meet and the State Games. As a result, the State Games swimming event was canceled last year.
This year, the meets have combined to help bring some support for the State Games event.
Swimmers from as far away as Cleveland and Biloxi are expected to be at the event. The meet is the final chance for the swimmers to qualify for the Mississippi State Long Course Championships that will be held at Delta State in a couple of weeks.
The Meridian Invitational gets underway at Highland Park with short course competition this morning. The younger swimmers will get a chance to compete for medals and ribbons. Warm-up will be from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and the competition should start at 8:15 a.m.
After this morning, the short course competition for the younger swimmers is over for the weekend and the older swimmers get started.
The warm-ups for these swimmers is a 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and the competition gets underway at 3:15.
There will also be morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday.
The High Points winners for the short and long course competitions will be awarded trophies along with the winning team.
To go along with the competition on Saturday, Choctaw Maid Farms will be selling smoked chicken plates. A chicken half, beans, chips and a drink will come in the plates that cost just $5.
The money raised from the chicken plates will go to support the Meridian Swim Association.
The MSA is enjoying a good season and this invitational is one of the biggest events for it during the year.
According to Vaughn, anyone interested in watching the meet should come out and get a chicken plate and enjoy the competition.