The Columbia Hurricanes made its coach proud in his final season at the helm of the summer swim team.

“It’s time to hang up the whistle,” Bart Jones said. “I am happy to be stepping away, but not done helping out with the team. My son still swims for the Hurricanes, and it’s likely my daughter will one of these years, too.”

Jones began coaching the Hurricanes in the late 1990s, and then returned as coach from 2015 through this year. 

Jones coached the Waterloo Piranhas from 2008-2014 and also coached in Oakville, Mo., and Red Bud.  

“I do believe we won finals four of the six years in Waterloo and three of the five years in Columbia,” Jones recalls. “But the biggest accomplishments aren’t really winning meets. I always wanted to win and that was always the goal, but truly I’ve always gained the most satisfaction seeing young children learn how to swim; seeing swimmers improve and drop time; become competitive and gain self confidence. Swimming is a sport you can do all the rest of your life and I’ve always aimed to help create a love for the sport. I got that from my coaches at Columbia Bath & Tennis when I was young and I just wanted to pass it on to others.” 

The Hurricanes were 6-2  in dual meets this summer and placed second to Waterloo in the Kaskaskia Conference finals. 

“We lost to Waterloo once and beat them once and same with Greenville,” Jones said.

Jones added that it was hard to match the strong number of Piranhas swimmers this summer.

“I do want to say how impressed I was with their team this year,” Jones said of the Piranhas. “They’ve really got things put together and have built the team back up. They had a great summer.”

Columbia had about 50-60 swimmers at most duals and swam a little under 50 in finals. In comparison, Waterloo had over 100 swimmers this season.

“I thought we did the best we could with the roster we had,” Jones said.

The Hurricanes had three high-point winners in the conference finals: Teddy Jones in ages 9-10 boys, Gabe Nelson in ages 13-14 boys, and Cadence Johnson in ages 15-18 girls. 

“They were all fantastic and scored a bunch of points for us,” Jones said.

Other high-pointers on the season for the Hurricanes were Zachary Gordon and Lillian Willingham in ages 8 and under; Jones and Morgan Conrad in ages 9-10; Cooper Reuss and Cambry Johnson in ages 11-12; Oscar Hoerr and Olivia Reuss in ages 13-14; and Alex Blum and Cadence Johnson in ages 15-18.

Some “breakthrough” swimmers for the Hurricanes this year, according to Jones, included Maddox Bieber, Karsen Crook, Sophia Nelson, Josie Taylor, Charlie Hake and Eleanor McGuire. 

For more information on the Columbia Hurricanes, call 618-281-4001 or click here.