A recent graduate of Penticton Secondary helped put Canada on the map at an international swimming competition last month in Hawaii.
Ashley McMillan captured the silver medal in the women’s 200-metre individual medley at the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships held in Honolulu, Hawaii on Aug. 27.
“I don’t know if there’s just one favourite moment, but anytime I’ve walked out for a final or a relay, I could see everyone on Team Canada screaming,” McMillan recalled when asked about her time in Hawaii. “They do this cheer and everyone is getting hyped up. We definitely got our cheer down by the last night.”
McMillan finished second in the final race with a time of 2:13, ahead of Gracie Weyant from the U.S. and behind Mio Narita from Japan, who was crowned the gold medalist.
The Penticton-based athlete, who graduated from Pen Hi in June 2022, is set to attend the University of Southern California to represent the school in NCAA’s Division 1 on a swimming scholarship.
With an international medal now under her belt, the swimmer says she wants to continue working on her freestyle split in the upcoming season.
The recent Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships featured athletes from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa, among others.
McMillan has spent the last year training at Canada’s High-Performance Centre for Swimming in Toronto, Ont.
READ MORE: Champions crowned in summer’s last beach volleyball tournament in Penticton