Piranha swimmers survive Extreme Week

It was a definitely an extreme week for the Grand Forks Piranhas swim club.

Grand Forks Piranhas swim club swimmer and coaches at the top of Observation.

Grand Forks Piranhas swim club swimmer and coaches at the top of Observation.

It was a definitely an “extreme” week for the Grand Forks Piranhas swim club. The swimmers put in four days of intense, physically challenging training for extreme week and then on the weekend took second at the Castlegar swim meet.

“Although everyone was exhausted we had a lot of best times for the weekend,” said coach Robyn Van Ek. “Extreme week went really well. We worked them really hard. We hiked Observation Mountain. The senior group (ages 11 and up) ran up to Valley Heights from the bottom three times. It was pretty grueling. The senior group swam between three and four kilometres each practice.”

In all, 30 Piranhas participated in Castlegar after competing in extreme week.

At Castlegar, Grand Forks finished second out of seven teams competing with 452 points.

Shian Corbeil continued to dominate, said Van Ek. She earned another meet record in the 50M butterfly.

“Luella Faulkner took 11 seconds off her best time in the 50M butterfly,” said Van Ek. “In prelims, Kohei Dunnet took two seconds off his 50M backstroke. He qualified for finals and swam the race again in the afternoon where he shave off two more seconds. He now aims to achieve a provincial qualifying time at regionals next week.”

Kiyomi Dunnet also swam a best time in the 50M backstroke.

“She out touched two other girls to finish first with a time of 37 seconds, a provincial qualifying time,” said Van Ek.

“Raelyn Morgan swam an excellent 50M breaststroke final. She took off 2.5 seconds to achieve a time of 44 seconds. Dayton Bryan swam a two second best time in the 100M breaststroke final. Robbie Wark raced the 100M freestyle in prelims, taking off eight seconds. In the finals, he swam again and took off another four seconds.”

 

Medals:

Div 1 Boys:

Kohei Dunnet – Silver

Robbie Wark – Bronze

 

Div 2 Girls:

Aysia Morgan – Bronze

 

Div 3 Girls:

Kiyomi Dunnet – Gold

Shian Corbeil – Silver

 

Div 4 Boys:

Ethan Argue – Gold

 

Div 5 Girls:

Leena Corbeil – Silver

 

Div 5 Boys:

Dayton Bryan – Bronze

 

Div 6 Girls:

Nicole Nuyten – Gold

 

Div 7 Boys:

Trentin Ludwar – Gold

 

Div 8 Women:

Robyn Van Ek – Bronze

 

Div 8 Men:

Doug Van Ek – Silver

 

Team Standings:

1. Castlegar (828 points)

2. Grand Forks (452 points)

3. Nelson (394 points)

4. Kimberley (340 points)

5. Trail (287 points)

6. Creston (219 points)

7. Colville (188 points)

Grand Forks Gazette