By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

Local swimmers for St. John Parish hope to make a splash in the River Parish Swim League’s invitational taking place this weekend at the Barracudas pool in LaPlace’s Larayo Park.

The invite marks the culmination of the league’s summer season with the best swimmers from local pools facing off in a full weekend tournament which was scheduled to kick off Friday with the preliminaries with the finals set to be decided on Sunday. The Barracudas will get to play host in this one, and look to be the team to beat as they completed a sweep of the local pools last week with a win over Riverlands. Larayo had also beaten Belle Terre earlier this season, just a week before Belle Terre’s Sharks topped the Riverlands Stingrays.

Last season, Larayo won the invitational point totals, followed by Riverlands in second and Belle Terre with fourth For Larayo, returnees from last year’s winning squad that should compete for top finishes this weekend include Kaityln Lowry, Meredith Keating, Brandon Klibert, Paige Braud and Kayla Klibert helped to lead the Barracudas in the victory. This season they hope to push even further in their respective strokes.

Returning for Belle Terre, Laura Bailey, Jennifer Broussard, Blake Gillies, Alixis Bailey and Gage Allemand all hope to repeat their 200 plus point performance from last year. These swimmers will likely be hotly contested by the Riverlands squad as they vie for what could be a close finish in team standings.

Those swimmers hoping to make a push for Riverlands include returnees from last year such as Derek Waguespack, Cody Chauppetta, Ross Brignac and Ashley and Kyle Wilking.

It should all be settled by Sunday evening provided the weather holds out at Larayo’s pool in LaPlace.