It wasn't quite the ocean, but the Castlegar Aquanauts swim club got the opportunity to swim in a salt water pool in Kimberley at the Seahorses meet on July 23 and 24.
"We did pretty good. We had a few meet records set and got some medals. We ended up finishing second overall behind Trail," said Aquanauts coach Mitchell Bourne.
Bourne, who competed himself in the open category, said that the salt water definitely helped the swimmers.
"You can definitely taste it a little bit, nothing like the ocean but it helps you float a little bit better. It tends to be that you float better you swim faster," said Bourne. "It's a pretty quick pool."
The meet in Kimberley was the last one for the regular season for the Castlegar club and Bourne was pleased with the success of his swimmers.
"We had some PCP (provincial qualifying) times achieved, which was pretty cool," said Bourne.
The provincial qualifying times were recorded by Bryce Anderson (50m breaststroke), and Nick Welychko (200m Individual Medley (IM), 50m freestyle, 100m Butterfly, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, and 100m freestyle). Welychko also set meet records in the 200m IM, 50m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, and 100m freestyle).
There were 37 athletes competing for the Aquanauts in Kimberley, of which 30 swam at least one all-time best time: Nick Welychko, Rachael and Emilie teButle, Wren and Harper Shaman, Teague and Connor Salekin, Logan and Carson Ogloff, Troy and Kelsey Negreiff, Ashlee Martini, Tia Malloff, Peter, Emma and Ethan Lawczynski, Caitlin Kellendonk, Sophie Jansen, Timm, Cayden and Avery Cooke, Claire and Kennedy Cartwright, Sierra Buchanan, Mitchell Bourne, Reid Bellamy, Jeffrey and Emily Ashton, and Corbin and Bryce Anderson.
Earning medals were: Division 1 - Bryce Anderson (bronze) and Cayden Cooke (silver); Div. 2 - Emma Lawczynski (silver), Harper Shaman (silver) and Reid Bellamy (gold); Div. 4 - Jeffrey Ashton (bronze); Div. 7 - Nick Welychko (gold); and Div. 8 - Mitchell Bourne (gold).
This weekend, Aug. 6 and 7, the Castlegar Aquanauts host the Kootenay Regional Championships at the Castlegar Recreation Centre pool. Heats will be in the morning starting at on both Saturday and Saturday, and the finals will be in the afternoon. Awards presentations are set for 5 p.m. each day.
"Unlike the other meets where it's an aggregate scoring, an accumulation of points, in this meet, every event is medalled," said Bourne. "The swimmers have been gearing up these past couple of weeks for the regionals in hopes of qualifying for the BCSSA Provincial Championships in Richmond."