Submitted by Pam Drydale
The summer swim season in is full sing, and swimmers have already competed in three swim meets in the West Kootenays. With most clubs, teams and organizations, we began our year with some familiar faces and a few changes. This year we welcomed back Jackson Sorenson as our Head Coach and we have Jeremy Woods as our Novice Coach.
Our club has approximately 60 swimmers, ranging from ages five to 20+ years. Many of our swimmers participated in the club’s fall and winter maintenance program. This program allows our swimmers to train for two hours per week throughout the fall and winter, and still maintain their summer swimmer status.
NELSON:
For as long as I have been a part of the Kimberley Seahorse Swim Club, Nelson has always been the first swim meet of the year. Nelson is an exciting meet on so many levels. It means that the competitive season has begun. This meet is also the start of the Kootenay Region Family being back together. As a small region, the Kootenay region relies on members from all the teams to make a meet successful. Swimmers get to see their competition and parents get to see fellow parents, and everyone gets to be part of the wonderful KR Family for the next few months.
For the KSSC swimmers, Nelson was an opportunity to get back into the competitive spirit. This year our swimmers were very successful in the Nelson pool. Every seahorse swam away with at least one personal best time, and our relay teams were amazing. London Ricketts, Brooke Burki, Brooke Stopanski, and Jeremy Woods received medals for their efforts.
TRAIL:
Trail is always a fun and entertaining swim meet. Trail is a jamboree style meet. This means that swimmers are not necessarily swimming against swimmers in their own age group but rather, swimmers are ranked by times.
We could have 13 year olds competing against the coaches, and some of our eight year olds racing the 12 year olds. This style of swim meet always leads to best times and incredible efforts. Our Seahorses did not disappoint at this event either. The KSSC swimmers had many best times and even set a few pool records. Aggregate winners include Brooke Burki with a silver, Brooke Stopanski with gold, Ella Kalin with a silver and Jeremy Woods with silver as well. Kimberley placed 5th overall for this swim meet.
CRESTON:
Oh, what fun the Creston Swim Meet always is. Other than our own swim meet, Creston is our biggest swim meet. This year we had 41 swimmers entered in the Creston Wave Annual Swim Meet. This year we had a number of novice swimmers swimming in their first ever swim meet. These novice events are always a highlight of the meet.
Novice events remind us that we are all a team and without each other, we will not experience success. Many of our novice swimmers have a support person in the water with them. These support swimmers are often our senior swimmers who volunteer to be in the water. The senior swimmers love being asked to swim with the littles. It gives them a chance to cheer for their little buddies and help them get from one end of the pool to the other. When you are only 5 years old, 25 meters is a really long way…especially if you are swimming butterfly.
Ella Kalin, Oscar Jarvis and Cliff Jarvis brought home bronze medals. Brooke Stopanski and Brooke Burki brought home gold. Brooke Burki also posted a fast 50 freestyle, breaking that 30 second mark once again. Kimberley placed 4th overall at this meet.
Congratulations to all our swimmers on the amazing start to the 2019 summer season. The Kimberley Seahorse Swim Club will be hosting our annual swimmer meet the weekend of July 27-28. If you are interested in the club, or simply want to see what a swim meet looks like, we would love for you to stop by and say hello. If you would like volunteer to be a timer, you get a front row seat to the action, and great snacks.
