Bree Cooper, 13, led a contingent of seven members of the Shuswap Swimming Team as she advanced to four finals at the BC AAA Age-Group Long Course Swimming Championships, held this past weekend in the two 50-metre pools at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
More than 600 swimmers representing 55 swim clubs from across Canada attended the four-day event.
Shuswap Swimming placed 35th among 48 scoring clubs with 130 points. The Hyack Club of New Westminster won the team championship with 1,870 points.
Cooper won the silver medal in the women’s 100-metre freestyle speeding to a sub-minute 59.99 seconds and added the bronze medal in the 50-m freestyle with a personal best of 27.60 seconds. She also recorded a best time in the 100-m butterfly, 1:06.21, placing fourth.
Cooper currently ranks ninth in Canada for 15-year-old girls in the 50-m freestyle, as she prepares for the Canadian Age-Group Championship in Montreal at the end of July.
Also advancing to the finals were Logan Pilias, 15; Ethan Quilty, 14; Jacob Rambo, 11; and Ty Webster-Locke, 13.
Webster-Locke placed fourth in the 100-m freestyle, sixth in the 50-m freestyle and eighth in the 200-m freestyle event. Rambo sped to sixth position in the 100-m butterfly. Placing eighth in the 50-m freestyle were Ethan Quilty and Logan Pilias for 14- and 15-year-old boys respectively.
Paige Coutlee, 14; and Olin Mosher, 13, also swam well at the meet with personal best swims, yet fell just short of the top-eight morning performances needed to advance to evening finals.
Across the water in Victoria, Thomas Flahr, 15, advanced to the finals at the AA championships with silver medals in the 50- and 100-m freestyle and a bronze in the 100-m breaststroke.
Molly Fogarty, 11, and Torrey McKee, 14, also advanced to finals. Team scores are not kept at AA championships.
“The provincial summer championship season is always a highlight for swimmers as most swimmers reach peak performances testing themselves against the best in B.C,” said Shuswap coach Sam Montgomery. “This is our club’s best-ever performance at a provincial championship, and Bree brought home our first-ever provincial medals.”
