Jamaica: FIU Panthers wins gold in 1:37.64 of 2023 AAC Swimming and Diving Championships

Jamaica: FIU Panthers won the gold medal in 1:37.64 of 2023 American Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships. Jamaican Kelsie Campbell records the 50-yard backstroke national record with a split of 24.91 to help FIU Panthers win AAC Gold in 1:37.64.

Last night on the third day of the 2023 American Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships at the Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center and Barr-McMillion Natatorium in Dallas, Jamaican World Short Course Champs representative Kelsie Campbell created history for herself , team and Jamaica. 

Competing for the Florida International University Panthers Campbell crushed her 50 yard backstroke PB of 25.55 to touch in 24.81. It was not only a PB but the fastest a Jamaican woman has ever swum in the 50 yard backstroke. That beat the 25.45 that Olympian Alia Atkinson recorded to win the Florida Gold Championship crown in 2016.

Her Panther teammates of Jamaica followed up with strong legs. Singapore’s Christie Chue breastroke (26.83), Frenchwoman Oumy Diop butterfly (23.58) and Jessica Shpilko from Israel freestyle (22.42) ensured that victory was theirs in 1:37.64. The Panthers were just off the pool record of 1:37.38 by the 2018 Louisville team and the meet record of 1:37.32 by the 2015 Southern Methodist University squad.

With that historic swim Campbell now owns sprint backstroke records. the graduate student set the Jamaican mark in the 100 yard backstroke in 2021 at 53.81. The Panthers are competing in this conference for the first time since winning eight consecutive Conference USA titles.

Jamaican Emily MacDonald wins Bronze in the 800 yard freestyle relay for the Columbia Lions at 2023 Ivy League Champs. Last night at the Princeton University’s DeNunzio Pool Jamaica’s Pan Am Games representative Emily MacDonald won her first Ivy League medal. 

Competing as a member of the 800 yard freestyle the Lions won the Bronze in a new school record of 7:10.44. Emily who has competed at the Central American and Caribbean Games in the 200 metre freestyle and Gold medals at the CARIFTA and now defunct Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships recorded a second leg split of 1:48.35. The team crushed the old 2014 school mark of 7:14.81.

Emily who attended Campion College in Jamaica and The Bolles School in Florida now has her name in the record books twice. She had set the 50 yard freestyle mark of 22.66 in December at 2022 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Winter Swimming and Diving Championships.

The Jamaican tally in the record books now stands at three . Trudi Ann Patrick , a member of the 2018 PAn Am Games national record 400 metre medley relay team owns the 200 yard butterfly mark with her 2014 swim of 1:59.91.

Earlier in the session Emily split 24.79 on the butterfly leg of the 200 yard medley relay. The Lions finished sixth overall in a time of 1:41.12