Twenty-nine Williams Lake Blue Fins swimmers made their way to Prince George during the weekend for a regional swim meet.
Head coach Chad Webb said the team put forward one of its strongest teams in recent memory and swam away with some impressive results after placing second overall in individual teams behind Prince George.
“With so many swimmers improving significantly it was difficult to highlight only a few swimmers,” Webb said.
Coaches eventually chose Gabrielle Knox and Jordyn Stokes as swimmers of the meet for the Fins from a long list of great performances.
“Gabrielle had a tough last day of the meet as she battled in the eliminator — four fast spring in a row — and came away with a second-place finish overall,” Webb said.
“Peyton Bailey also made it into the eliminator and lasted for one of the tough extra swims, swimming to another best time for her collection over the weekend.”
Jordyn, meanwhile, swam her way to a huge improvement in the 200-metre individual medley and made her first provincial qualifying time and now needs one more to qualify for the meet.
Blue Fins placing top five or better in every event were achieved by Taylor Fitzgerald, Jadyn Johnston, Melissa Elefson, Gabrielle Knox, Andrew Shearer and Lucas Johnston.
Fitzgerald was second overall in her age group, Jadyn was first overall and Knox was second overall.
Webb added significant improvements in best times totalling over 30 seconds of improvements were achieved by: Peyton Bailey, Melissa Elefson, Rachel Elefson, Livia Seabourne, Aliya Grant, Jadyn Grant, Nic Gysel, Braedi Hamar, Saphira Hohert, Gabrielle Knox, Emma-Grace MacDonald, Dane Ramier, Marissa Sellars, Hailey Sherlock, Andrew Shearer, Jordyn Stokes and Montana Waters.
The girls 13-14 relay team of Morgan Langford, Cristelle Panida, Abby Webb and Taylor Fitzgerald captured two club records in the 200-metre free relay and the 200-metre medley relay swimming their way to a first-place finish by over five seconds in the free and six seconds in the medley.
Other relays placing in the top three were: the 10 and under girls team of Melissa Elefson, Saphira Hohert, Emma-Grace MacDonald and Rachel Elefson, who finished second in both the free and medley relays.
Also finishing both relays in second were the 11 and 12-year-old girls team of Braedi Hamar, Gabrielle Knox, Peyton Bailey and Rowan Smith, while second place in the boys 11-12 year old division were Dane Ramier, Nic Gysel, Lucas Johnston and, swimming up from the 10-and-under category, was Andrew Shearer.
The Blue Fins are now getting prepared as, in two weeks time, they will begin their annual Christmas tree sales in the lakecity.
