Roughly 40 Williams Lake Blue Fins Swim Club members welcomed three visiting teams for its annual Cariboo Dental Frost Fest Swim Meet on the weekend.
Teams from Kamloops, Quesnel and Prince George joined the Blue Fins in hosting its first swim meet at the newly-constructed West Fraser Aquatic Centre and Sam Ketcham Memorial Pool.
“It’s been great,” said Blue Fins head coach Chad Webb.
“The facility’s really nice, and it’s been a busy weekend. We’ve filled the facility, which is cool, and it’s been a great meet so far.”
The Cariboo Dental Frost Fest Swim Meet, Webb said, caters to the club’s younger swimmers.
“We work more on self-improvement and self-best times,” Webb said, who is now in his fourth year of coaching with the club.
“Our numbers are back up, we have more than 70 kids in the water. It’s been a good rebuilding year. We don’t have a lot of older kids right now but we’ve got a great group of middle, younger kids that we’re bringing up that are breaking a lot of club records and there’s a good future for the club for sure.”
Webb added the club’s swimmers had a great time and improved significantly, especially the Blue Fins’ younger swimmers.
First swim meet participants were Andrew Shearer, Noah Shearer, Hailey Sherlock, Brianna Irawan, Aliya Grant, Jadyn Grant, Ashtynn Cullum and Nathan Cisecki.
The Blue Fins’ 10-and-under team took most of the top spots in both the medley and free relays, Webb said.
The 11- and 12-year-old girls, meanwhile, cleaned up at the event as Morgan Langford, Rebecca Elefson, Cristelle Panida and Gabby Knox took top spots in every swim, including the 100-metre Individual Medley Subway Showdown.
Panida won the event with Langford in second and Knox in third.
In the boys’ Subway Showdown Jadyn Johnson took top spot while Dane Ramier was sixth.
“Huge improvements from the entire team and special note to substantial improvements went to Emma Grace MacDonald and Melissa Elefson,” Webb said.
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