Former TRAX swimmer, Tess Markus, has taken over the reins as coach of the Trail Stingrays.
Markus, from Montrose, began coaching the Greater Trail based swim team in the fall, taking over for her former teammate Jennifer Chung, who coached the Stingrays for the past three years.
“I love working with all these kids, they’re great kids,” said Markus. “It’s really rewarding to be able to put back into the swimming community what I was given all those years. It’s very rewarding to have them succeed as well.”
Markus started swimming with the Stingrays, then moved up to the more competitive TRAX swim team when it formed in 2014. As a swimmer, the 20-year-old Selkirk College student enjoyed competing and having her hard work at practice and dry-land training pay dividends at the swim meets.
She hopes to instil that same hard work ethic in her swimmers, yet understands the importance of enjoying the experience.
“I liked competing and having the effort pay off in results,” said Markus. “But they (the clubs) are two different things completely.
“The Stingrays is definitely more of an introductory club, not as competitive and is definitely more for fun, but I think it’s really good for confidence building. It’s still competitive but more about preparing the swimmers for that level.”
Related read: Stingrays make a splash at home meet
The Stingrays have about 40 young swimmers enrolled, and have a full line up of meets again this summer. They host the Trail Stingrays Swim Meet June 8-9, and competed in their first meet of the season last weekend in Nelson.
Olivia Kivell in her first year swimming longer distances, excelled at them, said Markus, and Georgia Boone showed excellent technique and swam personal bests in all her races.
Markus was also impressed with her new swimmers, who performed very well.
Results: The team put in a great showing finishing in fourth overall with 341 points.
Aubrey Demmler topped the podium, winning gold in Div. 1 Boys.
Katie Fricke captured silver in Girls Div. 2 and Claire Fricke earned bronze in Girls Div. 4.
Reuben Demmler took home gold in Div. 4 Boys, and Ripley Shubert claimed bronze in Div. 5 Boys.
Tess Markus claimed silver in Div. 7 Girls.
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