The Andalusia Stingrays will use this week’s home tri-meet as a measuring stick to see where they are and what they need to improve on in preparation for the Alabama Recreation and Park Association’s district swim meet on July 16.

Practices before the meet on Saturday have been primarily focused on fine tuning turns and starts, 11-and-up coach Gavin Donaldson said.

“We have a short window to do what we need to do before district,” Donaldson said. “For district, I’ll take what I saw from their performance from this week’s meet, and over the next three practice days, I’ll go over what needs improving.

“Then, I’ll just let the chips fall where they may,” he said.

For 8-and-under coach Andy Shaddix, the swimmers in his group are right on the “cusp” of making or exceeding state qualifying times, he said.

“Mainly, this is our warm up meet right before district,” Shaddix said. “The whole summer has led up to this.

“On Saturday, it’s going to be if you’re swimming this event, then you’ll swim this at district unless something happens,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how well the team does on the relay. With the relay team when you start, there’s a split second difference and you can’t keep hanging on the blocks.”

The tri-meet will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning at Cooper Pool, and warm ups are at 9 a.m.