The Penticton Pikes summer swim club made a big splash at its annual invitational swim meet last weekend at the Community Centre pool.
Over 70 local swimmers registered for the early-season event and finished runner up in the two-day, five-team event.
“Overall the Penticton meet was a success,” said Pikes head coach Kara DeClark afterwards. “It was great to have our home swim meet so early in the season. As this gave us a chance to evaluate a lot of the swimmers and what needs improvement going forward in the season.”
Penticton finished runner up to the meet champions, the Kelowna Ogopogo club. Over 250 athletes competed.
Also competing were teams from Golden, Princeton, Similkameen and Salmon Arm.
Related: Pikes rule the swimming pool - Penticton Western News
Among the top swimmers for the Pikes were Jacob McNamee, 10, who finished first in all of his division 2 boys races as did Ryan McMillan, 11, in division 3.
Another strong competitor for the locals was Dawson Thomas, 12, who placed in the top two in every one of his division 4 races.
Over on the female said, the Pikes got some valuable points was Victoria Pennington, 12, in division 4.
In the girls division 1-2 (under 8, 9-10) Kenley Spencer, Mara Bickell, Amy Hawkins and Ayrile Dennison contributed to a successful 4x50 free relay race finish.
“Our younger swimmers all did a wonderful job at the meet this weekend as this was the first swim meet ever for most of them. Several of our young swimmers tackled their first-ever 100 individual medley,” said DeClark.
The Pikes’ next meet is on the Canada Day weekend in Merritt.
