It was a busy day in the water during the Estevan Golden Eels Invitational Swim Meet on Saturday.
One hundred and fifty swimmers representing seven different clubs from across southern Saskatchewan packed the RM of Estevan Aquatic Centre for the meet with races continually going on in the main pool from morning to night. A total of 58 Eels took part in the event helping the club to the high-point team award with 459.5 points as well as several individual medals.
“We have a lot of kids here today, so we’re doing really well,” said Cassidy Reich, coach of the Golden Eels. “They’ve all done so awesome today, lots of improvement and lots of time taken off and lots of good swimming.”
Alexandra Andrist, 11, competed in the girls ages 11-12 200-metre freestyle, 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 100m breaststroke, 200m individual medley, 100m freestyle relay and 100m medley relay.
“I like to swim and I just like to compete,” said Alexandra shortly before the relay events took place. “I’ve gotten 15 points so far and I think I’m doing really good.”
During a swim meet each of the competitors accumulate points throughout the event for each race they participate in. The top six swimmers of each race then earn a point ranking and ribbon for their placement with the top-three high point participants in each division winning a gold, silver or bronze medal.
Reich said the home meet showed off the major improvements the kids have made since the club began their five days a week practice schedule at the beginning of May. She said some of their newer swimmers have even advanced through practice from just starting to learn how to swim at the beginning of the season to now being able to complete four laps in a pool during a race setting.
“At the beginning of the year it’s a lot of stroke development, like learning the basics of the strokes and then coming around this time it’s more meet specific things like how to finish the race and how to pace yourself throughout a longer race,” she said. “Right now it’s just learning from each meet that we go to, taking what we’ve done well and giving congratulations for that and also learning from the mistakes that we make, so that hopefully we get better at the next meet.”
The Eels will dive back into competitive waters this Saturday at the Weyburn Leisure Centre for a Swim Saskatchewan south semifinal meet. After a short break for the 2016 Estevan Saskatchewan Summer Games, where 10 Eels will be competing for Team South East, select members of the club will then vie for a podium finish at the provincial championships at Regina’s Lawson Aquatic Centre from Aug. 6 to 7.
“We have a lot of swimmers going to semi-provincials as well,” said Reich. “Only the top six will qualify to go on to provincials for each race, so hopefully we have a lot of kids who qualify and have a strong meet.”
Earning medals for the Eels at the RM of Estevan Aquatic Centre are: Jordyn Tarnes, gold for ages 7-8 girls; Aliana Young, bronze for ages 7-8 girls; Blake Andrist, gold for ages 7-8 boys; Jacob Deitz, silver for ages 7-8 boys; Emily Tarnes, gold for ages 9-10 girls; Kaitlyn Waldegger, silver for ages 9-10 girls; Lucas Dzeryk, gold for ages 9-10 boys; Logan Dalziel, silver for ages 9-10 boys; Tristan Threinen, bronze for ages 9-10 boys; Adah DeLeeuw, gold for ages 11-12 girls; Carson Wheeler, silver for ages 11-12 boys; Taeghen Hack, silver for ages 13-14 girls; Josh Wilson, gold for ages 13-14 boys; Logan Marshall, silver for ages 13-14 boys; Christopher Sutter, bronze for ages 13-14 boys; Emily Marshall, silver for ages 15-17 girls; Payten Wilson, bronze for ages 15-17 girls; Thomas Wakely, silver for ages 15-17 boys; and Cassidy Reich, silver for ages 18 and over girls.
