Williams Lake Blue Fins swim club head coach Chad Webb said despite a smaller turnout from his club than expected due to Friday’s snow storm, the team put forth one of its best efforts over the weekend in Prince George at its first big meet of the year.
“[We] had 30 swimmers that entered the Prince George swim meet and with the bad weather conditions only 22 managed to make the whole trek to compete,” Webb said.
“It was unfortunate timing for the large dump of snow.”
With a slightly smaller group arriving at the pool than expected the team still made a big splash.
“There were so many great performances that it was hard to pick a swimmer of the meet from our club,” he said, adding the club’s older swimmers had just come off a hard week of training because of their week off school.
“We added some hard dry-land [training] last week and extended morning swims for a pretty tough week of training that they handled extremely well with some fast swimming to finish the week at the meet.
“All of the swimmers had significant improvements but Madison Blusson, notably, swam seven out of eight best times extending her great season so far.”
Trayden Stewart was swimmer of the meet for the Blue Fins’ senior group taking off more than 40 seconds in his races from just a few weeks ago to achieve three ‘A’ regional standard times in the 50-metre freestyle, the 100-metre freestyle and the 100-metre back stroke.
“This is a significant achievement for a swimmer who is only in his second year in the club,” Webb said.
For 11-and-under swimmers Taylor Fitzgerald blew the door off her swims by just under a total of two minutes in her races to be named the junior/novice swimmer of the meet.
Webb added Grace Turner, Shaylee Stewart and Abby Brown were three swimmers from the club competing in their very first out of town meet and did an amazing job showing strong signs of competitive skills. Stewart won two events and placed second in another.
Top-Three Finishes
• Ashley Beauchamp: third - 200m freestyle; third - 200m backstroke; third - 100m butterfly
• Madison Blusson: first - 50m breaststroke; second - 200m breaststroke; third - 200m individual medley
• Leif Brandson: second - 50m backstroke; third - 100m breaststroke; third - 100m backstroke; third - 50m freestyle
• Claire Brown: first - 50m butterfly; first - 50m backstroke; third - 50m freestyle
• Coral Choi: first - 100m freestyle; second - 50m freestyle; second - 200m breast stroke
• Danika Robson: third - 100m freestyle
•Marlie Russell: first - 50m backstroke
• Keanna Saunders: first - 25m butterfly; second - 100m breaststroke; third - 200m freestyle; third - 50m breaststroke; third - 100m individual medley
• Shaylee Stewart: first - 50m butterfly; first - 50m breaststroke; second - 200m individual medley
• Chase Stewart: third - 50m backstroke
• Kara Zavitz: second - 50m backstroke; second - 100m breaststroke; second - 100m freestyle
In relay competition, The Blue Fins’ team of Taylor Fitzgerald, Brown, Saunders and Mya Nowotny brought home the bronze medal in the 10-and-under girls’ 200-metre freestyle relay.
Blusson, Choi, Stewart and Zavitz won a bronze-medal in the 13- and 14-year-old girls’ 200-metre freestyle and medley relay, while Ashley Beauchamp, Robson, Choi and Russell placed third in the 15-and-over girls’ division.