Twenty Williams Lake Blue Fins travelled to Kamloops last weekend to compete in a wrap up meet for most of the club, except provincial qualifiers.
Head Coach Chad Webb said he was very pleased with the results once again and thought many of the swimmers exceeded his expectations for the meet.
“The competitive results have really been solid in the last few meets as many of the Blue Fins are becoming real challengers in many races,” Webb said.
Gracie Frost led the charge on day one as she swam the 50-metre freestyle in a record time of 33.9 seconds and made her first ‘AAA’ provincial standard.
This comes just after her last meet where she qualified for ‘AAs’ in a number of events just a few weeks earlier in Kelowna.
Gracie continued the great racing through the weekend as she placed second in every event she swam except for a fourth-place finish in the 200-metre individual medley.
Keanna Saunders was close on Gracie’s heels as she swam her way to her second ‘AA’ time and clinched her spot to represent Williams Lake at ‘AA’ championsihps in a few short weeks in Victoria.
Keanna also qualified in ‘AA’ times in a number of events through the weekend and finished top eight in everything she swam.
Ashley Beauchamp although had a slow start to the weekend, but finished up Sunday with three long heat swims and swam all three events again in the finals crushing her morning swims and much of the competition as she won the ‘B’ final in the 200-metre individual medley and finished second in the ‘B’ final in the 100-metre butterfly.
She also finished fifth overall in the 200-metre freestyle all in the same night.
Mitchell Ryan, Jonny Russell Shaylee Stewart, Chase Stewart, Trayden Stewart, all finished up the season with some big performances as they all qualified for their first ever finals and had some great finishes.
Daniel Rich who made finals in 100-metre backstroke and 50-metre backstroke, just missed qualifying for ‘AAs’ as he made the 50-metre freestyle in ‘AA’ time but needed one more ‘AA’ time to qualify for the meet.
Coral Choi repeated her breaststroke domination as she finished the 50-, 100-, and 200-metre breaststroke with two silver medals and a bronze medal and lowered her Blue Fins club records significantly with three best times.
The relay teams also had some great results as the senior boys with Trayden, Chase, Daniel and David finishing up eighth in the freestyle relay and ninth in the medley relay.
The 11- and 12-year-old boys team of Mitchell, Liam McCreight, Alejandro Birnoni and Landon Christensen finished seventh in the medley relay and fourth in the freestyle relay.
The girls 13- and 14-year-old team of Madison Blusson, Kara Zavitz, Coral Choi and Mikah Stewart finished a solid fifth in the freestyle relay and third in the medley relay with a huge swim from Mikah to anchor the medley relay in a 1.5-second best time. The 10-and-under girls with Gracie, Keanna, Taylor Fitzgerald, and Adriene Zimmerman crushed their competition by more than 16 seconds to take first place in the medley relay.
Top 8 results were :
Gracie Frost — second in 50 free, 100 free, 50 back, 100 back, 50 fly, 100 fly, 200 back, and fourth in the 200 IM;
Coral Choi — second in 50 breast and 100 breast, third in 200 breast and seventh in the 100 free;
Keanna Saunders — second in 100 breast, third in 200 IM, fourth in 200 free, fifth 100 free, seventh in 50 free, eighth in 50 back;
Mitchell Ryan — sixth in 50 back;
Ashley Beauchamp — fifth in 200 free;
Madison Blusson — fourth in 50 breast, and fourth in 100 breast;
Taylor Fitzgerald — seventh in 50 breast, seventh in 100 breast;
Danika Robson — seventh in 200 free;
Kara Zavitz — eight in 100 back, fifth in 50 back.