The Humboldt Hammerheads continued their 2016 summer swimming schedule with the North Semi-Provincial Championships in Humboldt on Jul. 23.
The meet featured teams from across the north region of Saskatchewan including Biggar, Humboldt, Melfort, Nipawin, Rosetown, Saskatoon, Shellbrook and Watrous and contained a combined 108 swimmers from the eight teams.
The Hammerheads took 33 swimmers to the championship and saw all 33 of them advance to provincials.
In order to advance to provincials swimmers were required to finish in the top six of an event, with all swimmers advancing in a given event if there were fewer than seven swimmers.
Thanks to the success of their swimmers the Hammerheads finished in first place in the age 7-12 combined team points race and in first place in the 13 and over combined points race. As a result of their success the Hammerheads also claimed first place in the overall combined team points standings finishing a whopping 288 points ahead of second place Nipawin.
Individually the Hammerheads enjoyed a significant amount of success as they collected 12 individual aggregate points medals including four gold, four silver, and four bronze medals.
The Hammerheads enjoyed their greatest amount of success in the 15-17 boys competition where they swept the podium with Ryan Hinz collecting the bronze medal, Justin Berscheid winning the silver medal, and Michael Carnago winning the gold medal.
Carnago enjoyed an extremely successful meet as he also broke a ten-year-old provincial record in the 100m backstroke.
Hammerheads Head Coach, Leisl Lefebvre, says she was ecstatic to see him break the record noting he has fallen roughly one second shy of a provincial record in the past.
The Hammerheads also claimed top spot in the 15-17 girls competition as well with Maya Berscheid winning the gold, just four points ahead of second place.
The 13-14 girls competition was another successful one for the Hammerheads as they claimed three out of four medals in an extremely close race that saw six points separate the top six swimmers.
Kelly Romanuik, and Jordan Nienaber collected bronze medals for the Hammerheads as they finished in a tie for third place in the aggregate points race with 22 points apiece.
Gold also ended in a draw with Lauryn MacLean finishing in a tie for first place with Nipawin swimmer Mikayla Woodward at 26 points.
Wrapping up the gold medal haul for the Hammerheads was Aidra Angelstad who claimed top spot in the 7-8 girls competition narrowly edging out second place by just two points.
The 9-10 girls competition was another where the Hammerheads collected multiple medals as they claimed to bottom two steps on the podium with Ashley Hinz collecting the bronze medal just three points behind Sabrina MacLean who finished second with 30 points.
Rounding out the medal winners were a pair of male swimmers for the Hammerheads as Darren Romanuik captured the silver medal in the 11-12 boys competition, just four points behind first place, and Jay Eichorst collected the silver medal in the 13-14 boys category.
Hammerheads Head Coach, Leisl Lefebvre, was really pleased with how the meet went saying, that it went smoothly with many of the coaches and swimmers remarking that they had a good time.
“It was a very relaxed atmosphere which is always nice and it’s always better for the swimmers that way. If your coach is tense and all your timers and all your officials are really tense and up tight it trickles down to them and all of a sudden they’re tense and up tight too.”
Lefebvre thinks that the swimmers have a good time in Humboldt because of the awesome amount of support from the parents.
“Our parents actually have taken at least one course to be an official on the deck at a swim meet so it’s never that last minute running around trying to find someone to fill this position… we don’t have that because we have enough parents that have taken their qualifications and are willing to step up and volunteer for us so that makes it a much more relaxful environment as well.”
Overall Lefebvre guesses there were more than 45 volunteers who helped out over the course of the day and says it is because of the support of those parents that they are able to host these meets.
“So having that type of support from our club is what makes our club very strong and it’s a great way if you have a child in swimming it is the best observation point on the deck.”
The event also produced history as Humboldt Hammerhead Michael Carnago broke the ten-year-old 100m backstroke provincial record in the boys 15-17 age group.
The Hammerheads now enjoy a week off before they head to the Provincial Championships in Regina Aug. 6-7.
