KISU swimmers were rewarded in more than one way from their victory during their Spring Pentathlon meet.
After watching their swimmers blow away the competition during its host meet at the Penticton Community Centre, KISU coaches were thrown into the water.
“It has been a while since we have won,” said KISU coach Tina Hoeben, nearly dried off after her swimmers threw her into the pool.
According to Hoeben, it is KISU tradition that coaches get tossed into the pool after winning a meet. KISU finished with 5617 points. The next team had 2,365 points.
Hoeben said her swimmers stepped up on home turf.
“The meet has a challenging format with five swims each day and many other swimmers chose not to do all five swims,” said Hoeben. “Almost all of KISU’s swimmers did the full program. Our youngest and new swimmers didn’t do the toughest events, and they swam fast.”
KISU had a handful of swimmers who achieved new time standards. Acacia Benn made her first ever AA time in the 200-metre back stroke, while Tyler Wall, making his competitive debut, earned AA times in the 100-m and 200-m backstroke. Xelian Louw made his first AA time in the 100-m back, while Nicholas Swanson made his first AAA time for the 100-m breast stroke in the senior age category. Also performing well were Brian MacPhail and Reilly Rowland.
Benn, 10, was excited about her results. Benn said she has improved in her backstroke and has worked hard in practice.
“I always try my hardest in the water,” said Benn, who competed against older swimmers during heats. “I felt I swam well. I tried to keep up with the older kids.”
Swanson, 17, felt he did well during the pentathlon, as he placed second behind teammate MacPhail on Day 1, was fourth on Day 2 and second again behind MacPhail on Day 3.
“It was a tough meet,” said Swanson. “I had some best swims. It was good competition. It’s a fairly intense meet because of how much you swim. I wanted to get as many best times.”
And Swanson accomplished his goal of earning best times in 12 of 15 races.
Hoeben said that mental toughness and enthusiasm was the key for her group. With five 200-m events on Saturday, the 200-m fly is particularly demanding physically and strategy-wise. The swimmers then had to complete a 400-m individual medley.
“It is a tough format for anyone, but it was great to see them embrace the challenge and support each other,” said Hoeben.
The quality of some teams wasn’t quite there as Hoeben noted some top swimmers didn’t compete. Clubs are just coming out of the championship meet season, some swimmers didn’t attend.
“Unfortunately for us, it is a tough weekend to host a meet, but we feel like we’ve made the best of it,” she said.
For full KISU results, check http://kisu.ca/results.