Williams Lake Blue Fins swimmers hit the water at the Sam Ketcham Memorial Pool Sunday morning for a time trial event to attempt to qualify for the B.C. provincial trials and the B.C. swimming provincials.
Thirty Blue Fins joined four swimmers from the Quesnel Waveriders swim club for the event, which ran from 9 a.m. until noon.
Chad Webb, head coach of the Blue Fins, said his swimmers performed exceedingly well.
“They’ve exceeded my expectations on results, for sure,” Webb said. “I had about 70 per cent best times from anybody who swam, which is pretty significant for a mini-meet. It can be pretty tough without a lot of competition to get yourself up for racing.”
Blue Fin Kara Zavits was swimmer of the day, Webb said, with huge improvements. She qualified for the 100-metre freestyle for ‘AA’ provincial trials in two weeks in Surrey. Additionally, six other Blue Fins had qualified for ‘AA’ provincials prior to the meet Sunday.
Madison Blusson broke fellow Blue Fin Coral Choi’s 12-and-under club record in the 200-metre breaststroke with her first time under three minutes, improving her spot for the ‘AAA’ provincials in four weeks.
“She already had a ‘AAA’ time, but it improves her spot significantly,” Webb said. “And she broke a club record. Not a slow club record, either.”
Webb added other notable swims were from Nadia Klaue, who dropped more than 12 seconds on three swims, and from Danika Robson, who knocked off more than 30 seconds on her 200-metre breaststroke.
Blue Fins aged 10 and under were also given a chance to test their times in an introduction to the time trial process.
Keanna Saunders took more than 30 seconds off her 200-metre individual medley, while Lucas Nowotny improved by more than 10 seconds in his 100-metre freestyle event.
“What I wanted to do with this meet was do a time trial for the older kids to try to get some more ‘AA’ and ‘AAA’ time standards, and it was sort of an introduction or a practice session for the younger swimmers,” Webb said. “Particularly the longer swims — the 200-metre individual medley and trying to get them to swim it in less than four minutes, which can be tough.”
Next weekend, 20 swimmers ages 12 and under will take to the Canada Games Aquatic Centre in Kamloops for the Kamloops Classic Valentine Splash swim meet.
For many of the Blue Fins this will be their first swim meet ever.
“This will be a fun event for the younger swimmers who are the future of our club and should be a great time for all,” said Blue Fins head coach Chad Webb.
For the seven Blue Fins who’ve qualified for ‘AA’ provincials, they’ll head off to Surrey in two weeks.