The Yorkton Storm Speed Swim Club concluded their season by attending the Mike Mintenko 47th Annual LC Summerfest Invitational and "A" Provincial/Junior Cup Swim Meet in Moose Jaw. 21 local swimmers attended the meet from the Yorkton Club, a new meet attendance record that Head Coach Ashley Benko is quite proud of.
"It seems that with each meet we attend the number of local swimmers coming along is growing," says Benko. "As a club we are going to focus on continuing to grow our numbers and bolster our meet attendance numbers," she added, "We had a couple of swimmers make this meet their first competition of their young careers and they quite enjoyed themselves."
"We had four swimmers qualify to compete in the "A" Provincial Meet and all four brought home medals, that's a great accomplishment," says Benko. "While we are proud of all of our swimmers' improvements we are especially pleased with the results turned in by Jacob Baker (13), at this meet," Benko noted. "Jacob earned bronze medals in both the 50m and 100m Butterfly events." Baker's medals marked the first time since 2005 that a YSSC male athlete earned medals at Provincial meets.
Jacob himself was very pleased with his accomplishments in the pool and earning the club its first boys medals at provincials in nearly a decade. "I was very happy to win medals in both Butterfly events, Fly is my favourite stroke." The fly is known as one of the most gruelling strokes in swimming and is a very difficult stroke to master.
Baker says that he attributes the medals to working hard at practice and strong coaching from Benko. "Initially I was happy to have qualified for Provincials for the first time, winning two medals makes it even better," he added.
Jennifer Haczkewicz (13), used the meet as a tune-up for the upcoming Man-Sask "AA" Swim Meet and captured five medals at provincials, continuing her form as a top swimmer in the provincial circuit. Jennifer won the gold medal in the 100m Backstroke, three silver medals in the 200m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly, and 100m Freestyle.
She rounded out her five medal performance with a bronze medal in the 200m Individual Medley. "I was happy with my results in Moose Jaw, I don't get to swim my fastest races there because I have "AA" times in them so it is good to medal in a few of the races that I don't normally swim," says Haczkewicz. "I was really happy with my medal in the 200m IM, I've never medalled in that event before." The individual medley is a race comprised of all four swimming strokes. In the 200m IM swimmers swim 50m of Butterfly, 50m of Backstroke, 50m of Breaststroke followed by 50m of Freestyle.
Kelsey Haczkewicz (13), captured two medals at the meet. She won a silver medal in the 200m Freestyle, and a bronze medal in the 100m Backstroke to cap off a good weekend in the pool for the sister combination. Jillian Just (14) finished out the club's "A" Provincial medal winning with a bronze medal effort in the 200m Breaststroke.
Coach Benko was very happy with Just's performance saying that she had taken 1.99 seconds off of her entry time in the prelims and then an additional 0.31 seconds in the final. With the event being an outdoor event, a challenge Storm swimmers are not used to normally competing indoors, Benko was impressed that her young swimmers were able to adapt and perform at such a high level in the final meet of 2013 "This meet is held in an outdoor pool," says Benko, "so swimmers have to contend with the sun and wind in addition to the regular stresses of competing at this level, so taking almost 2.5 seconds off is phenomenal."
Connor Watrych (11), won the silver medal in the 50m Butterfly event. In the race he erased 4.04 seconds from his previously best posted time. Watrych's medal came in the Junior Cup portion of the Moose Jaw Meet and was very close to posting his first provincial "A" qualifying time to end the season on a high note. "Connor is getting stronger with each competition, and is on the verge of posting his first "A" time," says Benko. She went on to add, "if he continues to train hard next season he will be a force to be reckoned with!"
The YYSC Storm Chaser Award that is given each meet to the swimmer that shows the greatest overall improvement in their times was awarded to Owen Watrych. Owen (7), had an incredible overall improvement of 8.61 seconds on average in all of his races swam in Moose Jaw.
The swim club will now take a little break until late September when they begin training for the 2013-2014 Short Course swim season. Anyone interested in joining the team for next year or taking part in their very popular "I Can Swim" swimming lessons should plan on attending the City of Yorkton's City Wide registration night.
