Two Williams Lake Blue Fins swimmers, Andrew Haseldine and Cristelle Panida, took their talents to Victoria during the weekend for the Swim BC AAA Championships to compete against the fastest swimmers in the province.
“[We] didn’t place in the top eight finals but managed some very close swims and some personal bests in spite of their limited training facilities,” Blue Fins coach Chad Webb said.
Due to the Sam Ketcham Memorial Pool construction and closure, the Blue Fins have been travelling to Quesnel and swimming at New Waves Pool and Spa in the spa trainer to be able to keep their training up.
Haseldine had his best swim on the final day of the meet in the 100-metre butterfly, missing eighth place by less than two tenths of a second to finish ninth overall in the province which Webb said is impressive for his first provincials ever.
Haseldine’s other top-16 placing in the B finals was in the 200-metre butterfly where he wound up 15th overall.
Panida, meanwhile, was solid in all her swims, Webb said, finishing 13th in the 200-metre individual medley, 12th in the 50-metre freestyle, 16th in the 400-metre individual medley and 11th in the 100-metre butterfly.
“This was a big improvement for her as she moved up significantly from her last summer results at the meet,” Webb said.
The Blue Fins are now waiting patiently for the pool to complete and plan to be back in the water to finish up the season by the end of April.