Outstanding performances in the pool combined with contagious team spirit helped the KISU swim club take second at Kelowna’s KAJ long course meet May 8-10.
“The KAJ Invitational meet was a great success for KISU. We had some outstanding swims with best times and qualifying for higher level meets” said coach Tina Hoeben, who had 36 swimmers compete.
Sean Peters, Aspen Benn and Caitlyn Kowal made their first A standard times. Jordan Souch Tremblay made his second AA time in the 200 individual medley, which qualifies him to attend a AA meet. Liam Wallich made his second AAA time, 200 IM and his third in 400-metre freestyle, which qualifies him to attend a AAA meet. Mackenzie Wallich made her first Western time standard in the 400 IM, which qualifies her to attend the upcoming Mel Zajac meet in Vancouver along with the Western meet in Winnipeg next season.
Hoeben also watched as Ashley McMillan and Marlee Caruso battled each other in the 400 IM and finished only 1/100th of a second apart – 6:02.94 and 6:02.95. This swim ranks them 11 and 12th in the country for the 11 and under age group.
Achieving personal bests were Avery Barnett, Acacia Benn (in all events entered), Caruso, Thomas Caruso, Daniel Everton, Justin Fotherby, Chelsea Keeler, Elijah Kliever, Xelian Louw, McMillan, Evan Peters, Sean Peters, Belize Souch-Tremblay, Souch-Tremblay, Liam Wallich, Wallich, Alice Wang and Joy Wang (in all events entered).
KISU swimmers also cut times as Daniel Everton took 63.22 seconds off of his 1,500 freestyle (Boys 13 & Under), Xelian Louw 17.02 seconds from the 200-m fly (Boys 14-15), Ashley McMillan, 27 seconds off her 400-m free (Girls 11 & under), Andreas Nordlund taking 23 seconds off of the 100-m backstroke (11 & under boys), and Jordan Souch-Tremblay taking 20.99 seconds off of the 200 IM (11 & under boys) and Evan Peters taking off 24.68 seconds in the 200 IM (Boys 12-13).
Acacia Benn had an outstanding meet as she broke three KISU Club Records in the 200-m free, 50-m breast and 200 IM and had one of the highest point scores.
Justin Fotherby scored the highest KISU club points, placing first in all 11 and under boys events entered, while breaking six Kelowna KAJ LC Meet records in 100-m breast stroke, 200-m backstroke, 100-m backstroke, 50-m fly, 100-m freestyle and 200-m fly.
Fotherby also broke Bobby Harling’s 200-m fly club record from 2005. With this performance, Fotherby earned the No. 1 Canadian ranking by seven seconds for 11 & under boys.