While it’s still early in the season, the KISU swim club is already proving to be a force to be reckoned with.
The team narrowly missed taking top spot in the overall standings at its annual three-day KISU Iron Pentathlon meet at the Penticton Aquatic Centre last weekend.
KISU finished a slim 300 points behind the eventual champion Kamloops Classic Swimming squad in its first meet of the season, which runs from September to June.
“We had some outstanding swims, some people who dug really deep and performed really well and I think it bodes well for a successful season,” said KISU head coach Tina Hoeben afterwards. “We were ahead on Saturday morning and then Saturday afternoon we didn’t do as well. On Sunday we closed the gap, but not enough, but I’m quite happy with that.
“It was also the first meet of the year so it was also good to see some of the reminders of what you do need to work on and what you need to focus on to become better.”
There were a total of nine teams and just under 300 competitors who took part. Clubs from as far away as Nelson, Revelstoke and Trail were in attendance.
The Penticton team was led by a number of outstanding individual performances, including the record-breaking efforts of 10-year Ashley McMillan and Acacia Benn, 12.
McMillan snapped a 25-year-old club record in the girls’ 100-metre backstroke and the previous best time in the 50-metre backstroke.
In her division, Benn also broke the 1990 club record in the 100-metre backstroke.
Both girls were also triple pentathlon winner in their respective divisions.
McMillan was first in all 15 events she swam in which was produced 300 team points. Benn was first in nine events, added three runner-up finishes and a pair of thirds, good enough for 276 team points.
“Ashley was really one of our superstars and so was Acacia,” said Hoeben.
In addition, 11 other club members significantly improved their personal times in one or more events.
Other strong finishers for the club included Jordan Souch-Tremblay, Hayden Krause and Thomas Caruso in the boys 10 and under, 11-year-old Justin Fotherby and Elijah Kliever in the boys 11-12, Riley Wall, Jaren Lefranc and Samuel Lasinksi in boys 15 and over, Mackenzie Wallich in 13-14 girls, Tyler Wall in 13-14 boys and Alice Wang in girls 10.
The next events for many of the club swimmers will be this weekend, with some members taking part in the B.C. High School Swim Meet in Revelstoke or the regional swim camp in Kamloops.