The Waveriders had a rough start to their weekend in Kelowna, but managed to come out on top despite it.
“I didn’t do a lot of coaching this weekend. I had to become a psychologist to help them think differently,” coach Jeritt Brink said.
Garnet Currie, an 11-year-old, swam with 14 and 16-year-olds and lost time trying to hang with the big kids.
Despite that, his first races were fast enough to get him into the finals in his age group, where Brink had to work his mind magic to help Currie regroup.
Brink didn’t have a leather couch, but still managed to play the psychologist, managing to help Currie refocus and set a new personal best, beating his old one by 2 seconds, in the finals. His finals also bumped him up to third overall.
“I had two races left and I was fifth. The points from the (last) two races bumped me up,” said Currie.
Currie has now made what he and Brink refer to as ‘the swimmers flush’: getting his ‘AAA’ (the top level of provincial competition) times in every freestyle event, from 50 to 1500 metres.
Natasha Hanson topped her own expectations by achieving a ‘AA’ time in the 50 metre free, as well as making four ‘B’ finals and three ‘A’ finals.
Page Kovacs came back from a broken arm to post a couple personal bests in 100m backstroke as well as 50m freestyle.
Jana Kovacs made finals, but had to pull out due to health issues.
