Sidney -- Saturday's cool weather didn't stop swimmers from competing an extra lap or two for one of their own.

The benefit relay generated about $1,100 for the Kaleb Cerenil family.

Sidney's medal meet was held Saturday July 8. Following the meet, a relay race was held. 

Cerenil is an active teen, involved in wrestling and swimming. He will be in 8th grade in the 2023-2024 school year. He finished the wrestling season and moved on to Federation wrestling. His mom said he was at Districts at Western Nebraska Community College in Scottsbluff when he started experiencing health issues.

"He had finished out his wrestling and moved on to the Federation wrestling season. We were actually at Districts at WNCC in Scottsbluff. He was wrestling his teammate. They had gone all three rounds. He gave it everything in the tank. After that match, he kind of stumbled off the mat. He didn't like fully lose consciousness, but he just, I was running one of the tables and he said 'Mom' and he fell into my lap," said his mother, Crystal Hanley.

This would have been his third year swimming with the Sidney Stingrays. Last year, he set a meet record for the boys 11-12, 400 free and it was not broken this year. However, due to several episodes of passing out during physical activity, his doctors discovered that he had a right coronary anomalous and he could no longer participate until it is repaired.

On June 30, he underwent open heart surgery to repair the anomaly in his heart. He is expected to make a full recovery and should be able to return to all of his favorite activities eventually.

The Stingrays decided to help the family.  For $10 a swimmer could pay to enter anybody they wanted to swim in the relay. If that person did not want to swim, then they had to pay $10 and pick someone else to swim in their place.
 
The event generated a little more than $1,100 for Kaleb's family.
 
"It's a little overwhelming. My sister had done a gofundme, and he is part of the Sidney Wrestling Club, so they did something for him. It's super appreciative, but I mean you just don't know the support and everything you have until you need it. There's so many people that are willing to jump in and help," Hanley said.
 
Parents were entering their siblings who had come as spectators. Some kids were picking swimmers from other teams. Kids were entering their parents, siblings, or coaches, and one boy even entered his grandfather, who did elect a different person to swim in his place.
 
The relay generated so much interest a second heat was added. 
 
Each swimmer had to do a different stroke:
Beach ball butterfly - push a beach ball across the pool while doing butterfly stroke. 
Floating Feet Backstroke - swimming with children's arm floaties on your ankles.
Tennis ball Breaststroke - swimming the breaststroke with tennis balls in your hands.
T-shirt Resistance Freestyle - swimming with a 3X t-shirt on.