Even though it was the first time this season the club didn’t earn a first place finish, there were still many exceptional performances by the members of the Athabasca Rapids Swim Club.
Overall, the club captured a staggering 13 top three finishes at the Fast Eddie’s Invitational Swim meet, hosted by the Edmonton Penguins Swim Club at the University of Alberta pool on Feb. 7 and 8.
Taylor Sheppard led the way in the Under-10 girls category, placing second three times and taking third twice.
Staying with the girls, nine-year-old Avery Kamelchuk brought home a pair of third place finishes, while Makayla Sheppard, 12, ended up with a second and a third place finish.
Over in the boys lane, Jake Gerritse, 12, captured a pair second place finishes, while 11-year old Bo Maier ended up with one second place finish and Zack Sikora, 10, took home a third place finish.
Makayla Sheppard also did well in taking on the grueling 25m freestyle swiminator, where the slowest swimmer is eliminated in each of five consecutive heats before a winner is declared. Makayla finished the 11 and 12-year-old girls’ race in fourth place.
And that wasn’t the end of the great performances for the Rapids, as 15 Rapids swimmers tore up the pool achieving 72 personal best times over the weekend.
“Achieving new personal bests is a goal for all swimmers, and our athletes did not disappoint. I’m was very proud of the achievements they all accomplished that weekend and look forward to more of that in the coming weeks,” explained Rapids head coach Steve Splinterin an interview last week.
Seven Rapids swimmers put up new personal best times in six out of their seven events.
Makayla Sheppard, Taylor Sheppard, Andrea Woudstra, Zack Sikora, Max Makovey, Maier and Jake Gerritse were the fortunate ones able to perform the feat.
Meanwhile, Dylan Fitzsimmons and Julianne Safar each managed to shave time off their personal bests in five events with Kyra Sheppard, Avery Kamelchuk, Ayden Duniece and Tim Fitzsimmons each dispatching their former records for new ones in four races. With the amount of personal best times, there were bound to be some major gains made.
Kyra Sheppard was among the top of the group, after clawing off nearly 32 seconds from her 100m backstroke time and then to top that, she bettered her 100m freestyle time by more than 20 seconds.
Kamelchuk was also among the 20-second club, subtracted more than 27 seconds off her 100m freestyle distance.
The boys also couldn’t help but join the club as Makovey shaved almost 20 seconds off his 100m freestyle personal best.
Then over in the 200m freestyle event, three Rapids swimmers – Taylor Sheppard, Jake Gerritse, and Dylan Fitzsimmons – clobbered their personal best times with improvements of 25, 20, and 25 seconds respectively.
And not to be left out, 8-year-old Julianne Safar made her competitive meet debut at the event, swimming all of the competitive strokes, including the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle.
Everyone is back in the pool competitively on Mar. 21 and 22, but they won’t all be at the same event.
The Rapids will split their forces, sending the younger swimmers – under 11 – to the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club’s annual Grizzly Cup.
Meanwhile, the older Rapids athletes will do their best at the Triton Sprint Challenge in Beaumont
However, as a long-distance warm-up, the Rapids team will challenge itself with its annual swim-a-thon.
The event, slated for Mar. 11 at that Athabasca Landing pool, will see the athletes swim far as they can in the given 75-minute time limit.
The team uses the challenge as a fundraiser to help cover costs for coaching, pool rental and other equipment needs in addition to contributing to swimmer development in Canada as a whole.
Since the swimmers need to collect pledges for the event, anyone interested in supporting the club can donate online under the name of one of the Rapids swimmers by visiting the website http://albertaswimathon.ca/arsc.
In the meantime, the club will continue to practice Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. as well as Thursday from 7 to 8 a.m. and new swimmers are welcome for either the competitive and developmental options.
If you would like more information, feel free to contact Florene Ypma by calling (780) 675-3305 or sending an email to [email protected].
