TT Polo Princesses in Florida U16 final today

AFTER one win on Friday and two yesterday, TT’s Under-16 Polo Princesses moved into today’s final of the Sunshine State Games/Florida State Championships Under-16 Division, where they will face local team, Miami Riptides, from 1.40 pm local time.

The tournament, hosted in Coral Springs, Florida, is being used by TT’s water polo team as preparation for next year’s PanAm Junior Championships, a qualifying event for the World Junior Championships. TT’s water polo girls were not originally scheduled to compete at the state games, but decided to challenge it after the water polo Female Under-16 division at the upcoming CCCAN Games in El Salvador was cancelled.

Led by coach Alan Too A Foo, the team opened with a narrow and hard-fought 7-6 win over South Florida Water Polo (SFWP), on Friday.

The match went into the tie-breaker with Yasmin Mohammed breaking the deadlock with her goal in the first minute of overtime.

Early yesterday, the TT girls returned to the pool and eased to a second win, this time 12-3 over Thunder.

Then, just a couple hours later in the third and final group match, the Polo Princesses were similarly dominant in a 11-4 win over Riptides.

The team made it to the state championship multi-sport event after hosting a series of fund-raisers and with help from the athletes’ parents.

Team: Zoe Van Reeken, Yasmin Mohammed, Victoria Gillette, Leah Mitchell, Christina Nimblett, Abeo Valentine, Tahirah Beepat, Aaliyah Aching, Brean Jordan.

Coach: Alan Too A Foo

Manager: Genevieve Van Reeken