Four new club records and a handful of new meet qualifiers were among the highlights for the home team as the Kelowna AquaJets played host to the 38th annual Snowfest swim meet.
Close to 275 swimmers from across B.C. and as far away as Whitehorse and Seattle competed last weekend at H20 Fitness & Adventure Centre.
KAJ coaches were pleased with the operation of the event and the level of competition.
“Our team did a great job start to finish all weekend, we are quite proud of our teams accomplishments from the meet,” said Jets’ head coach Peter Wilkins.
New qualifying standards came at a fast pace on Friday and Saturday with first time qualifiers from Brandon Mullin (1500 Free, 400 Free, 400 IM), Chloe Dalgarnoe (50 Free, 100 Back) and Evan Kohnke (100 Back, 200 Back, 100 Fly) for the BC AA Championships in Chilliwack.
Also qualifying for a new meet was Ella Rolleston (50 Fly, 200 Fly), earning a spot at the BC AAA Championships in Surrey in March.
New club records came from two boys, Johnny Ekinci, 10, and Josh Zakala, 16. Zakala was able to lower an Andrew Appleton mark (1997) in the 15-17 50 Fly on Friday night with a time of 26.66. Zakala also clipped off 4 seconds to the existing Julien Roberts (2013) record in the Mens 15-17 and Open 200 Fly with a blistering time of 2:07.25. Meanwhile, Ekinci lowered the 50 Back record in a time of 37.11 in the Boys 10 & Under category.
Swimmers finishing in the top three were:
• First place—Chloe Dalgarnoe (50 Free) Axana Merckx (200 Free, 200 IM), Emily Epp (400, 800 Free, 50 Breast), Johnny Ekinci (50 Back, 200 IM), Evan Kohnke (200 Back), JC Drygasuk (100, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, 200 IM), Josh Zakala (1500 Free) and Marius Prietzsch (50 Back).
• Second place—Erin Epp (100 Breast), Ella Rolleston (50 Fly), Merckx (800 Free, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 400 IM), Molly Hill (50, 200 Fly), Skye Kinnear (100 Breast), Kohnke (100 Fly), Drygasuk (1500 Free, 50 Back, 400 IM), Max McDonald (50 Breast), Prietzsch (100 Free, 200 Back, 100 Fly) and Zakala (50 Fly).
• Third place—Rolleston (100 Free, 200 Breast), Dalgarnoe (50 Back), Erin Epp (50 Breast), Madison Comeau (100 Breast), Hill (800 Free, 100 Fly), Kinnear (800 Free, 200 Breast), Ekinci (200 Free) and Drygasuk (50 Fly). Also swimming in finals and placing in the top 8 were: Tia Itterman, Volodymyr Matushevsky, Brandon Mullin, Lucy Hill, Kaylin Scuka, Taylor Desrosier and Kitana Bright.
