For a small town club, the results from their first swim meet of the season is proof they should be able to compete this season.
A total of 11 swimmers from the Athabasca Rapids Swim Club took part in their opening meet on Nov. 1 hosted by the Penguin Swimming of Edmonton and held at MacEwan University.
The team combined for seven first place finishes, six second place and five third place results in the two age categories that the team competed in.
In all, the Rapids swimmers completed 54 times and achieved a remarkable 41 personal best times in the 20 race categories the club contested.
In the under-10 girls category, Avery Kamelchuk wound up with personal best times in all five of her races. That included managing a second place finish in both the 50 metre butterfly and backstroke.
She also shaved off slightly more than seven seconds from her personal best in the backstroke and a whopping 15 seconds off her best time in the 200m individual medley race.
Another strong performance at the meet came from Andrea Woudstra in the girls 11 to 12 year age category.
Woudstra captured first place in the 50m butterfly to go along with four second-place finishes in the 50m backstroke, 50m freestyle, 50m breaststroke and in the 200m individual medley. The result in all five race were also personal best times for Woudstra.
Over on the boys side, Zachary Sikora won the under-10 25m backstroke and the 25m breaststroke then took third place in the 25m butterfly.
Those results were personal best times for Sikora, who also had new personal best times in the other two races he competed in.
The meet was the first competitive event for swimmers Jaida Mindus, Ben Olsen and Ayden Duniece.
According to head coach Steve Splinter, all three were strong in their respective events and conducted themselves like swim-meet veterans.
Being as it was the first meet of the new season, Splinter was keen to see what the swimmers’ strokes really looked like under the pressure of competition
“We have a strong, young team here,” Splinter stated following a look at the way the athletes performed and how the results turned out.
Next up for the Athabasca Rapids Swim Club is an opportunity to race at the Ponoka Cookie Classic scheduled for Dec 6 and 7.
It’s a bit of a unique event where swimmers will earn cookies for any personal best times that they achieve.
