Our local pool speedsters travelled to Prince Rupert from May 10 to 12 for the annual NW Region Championships.
A small contingent of 16 swimmers ranging in age from 9 to 15 represented their home town. Still, despite the young overall age of the team, they managed a respectable second place overall showing with multiple lifetime best results in a competition that was plagued with difficulties and saw all sessions of finals cancelled.
The fire west of Smithers caused a power outage that plunged Prince Rupert into the dark and closed the pool on Saturday. Lingering effects caused a chlorine pump to trigger an alarm and dropped chlorine levels in the pool to almost nothing between heats and finals Sunday.
Though swimmers were disappointed at not having a second chance to improve their times with second swims, it did mean the gracious competition hosts in Prince Rupert gave everyone the green light to head home at 2 p.m. on Sunday and still have time to enjoy the beautiful weather.
Many parents and siblings attended as part of the support squad and their presence at the competition provided a huge boost to team spirit.
Though small in number compared to a large number of swimmers from the local swim club, the Marlins made their presence known on the podium.
The Marlins garnered two overall age group wins in the male 11 and under age group with a silver medal for Jacob Van Horne and a bronze medal for Dallas Gray.
Sweeping the male 12-13 year age group were newly returned bronze medalist Lucas Johnston, silver medalist Gavin Thompolous and gold medalist Graydon Rusconi.
In the female 12-13 age group, Megan Forrest sped to a gold medal overall achievement.
Next up for the swim club is a competition in the recently reopened pool in Terrace from May 31 to June 2 and provincial age group championships (long course, 50m pool) where the Marlins will be represented by four out of six qualified swimmers: Megan Forrest, Louie Quinn, Jacob Van Horne and Lucas Johnston.
