It was the largest Williams Lake Blue Fins’ swim meet in history as 129 swimmers invaded the Sam Ketcham Memorial Pool over the weekend for Frost Fest 2014.
Fifty-five Blue Fins and swimmers from Kamloops, Quesnel and Prince George helped achieve the feat.
Head coach Chad Webb said for 17 of the club’s swimmers, who he added all made big splashes, it was their very first time competing in a swim meet.
“The whole swim club and some of the community came together in running a very impressive meet that the out-of-town clubs commented on repeatedly,” Webb said.
The meet was a chance to highlight the club’s younger swimmers while still giving the older athletes a chance to race in preparation for a few upcoming meets.
“Many swimmers achieved ‘A’ regional standards and some were very close to ‘AA’ provincial times,” he said.
Keanna Saunders, Chase Stewart, Trayden Stewart, Daniel Rich, Liam McCreight, Landon Christensen, Gracie Frost and Claire Brown all inched their way closer to ‘AA’ times and are working to achieve these for the long course season, he added.
Leif Brandson managed to clinch three ‘AA’ provincial times and qualify with the rest of the ‘AA’ team. David Russell, Kara Zavitz, Ashley Beauchamp, Kelsey Blockland, Chloe Sylvain, Danika Robson and Geneva Gordon will be joined by Brandson as they make their way to Chilliwack in two short weeks.
Webb said all of the club’s coaches were very impressed with the swimmers as some competed in more than 10 events in the two-day competition.
“They fought hard to the end,” he said. “We have such a strong group of younger swimmers that make it very exciting for the future of great swimmers in the club.
“We have four or five swimmers breaking club records at almost every meet and they just keep getting better. The parent support was overwhelming this weekend and other coaches told me how they plan to come back with even more swimmers in future years.”
The meet, sponsored by Cariboo Dental, Taseko Mines and Subway, helped make the event a financial success for the club, Webb added.
“I hope as we become even stronger and perform even better that the community will back us in a yes vote for the [pool upgrade] referendum in November,” he said. For first-place results see the Scoreboartd in today’s Tribune.
