The Kootenay Swim Club had another successful outing at the 34th annual Ice Fest competition in Kelowna. The meet was hosted by the Kelowna Aquajets swim club and took place over three days, Jan. 21-23, at the H2O Centre.
Eight members of the club made the trek to the Okanagan Valley for this short-course event which included races of 50-metre, 100-metre, 200-metre and 400-metre distances. Other teams attending hailed from Vernon, Kamloops, Penticton, Salmon Arm and Summerland.
Coach Dustin Boyachek kept an attentive eye on the performance of each swimmer in their events and was encouraged by the improvement demonstrated by all team members.
Kelsey Andrusak had an outstanding meet with two second-place finishes in her age category (for 100-metre breaststroke and 50-metre freestyle), and a third place finish in the 50-metre breaststroke. What made these finishes all the more impressive was that much of her competition was a full year older.
Sister Jordan Andrusak made the finals in all three 100-metre events (breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly), also swimming against many older competitors.
Of note, Jordan is now ranked among the top 10 Canadian swimmers in her age group for select freestyle events.
Malcolm MacLeod was pleased with swimming many best times, one of which earned him a spot in the 100-metre breaststroke finals, where he placed sixth. He also placed fifth in the 50-metre breaststroke. Niallin Collier had several best times, highlighted by finishing third in the 100-metre breaststroke finals, and fourth in the 100-metre backstroke finals.
Hannah Devries attended her first meet with the club and achieved a number of best times, along with experiencing some longer distance races for the first time.
Sydney Wetter also had numerous best times, with the highlight of shedding 13 seconds from her 100-metre breaststroke event.
Gabrielle Hanvold achieved a second-place finish in the 200-metre butterfly event. She likely swam the most metres of any club member over the weekend, finishing off with a grueling 400-metre IM race Sunday afternoon (in which she still obtained a best time.) Emma Borhi placed sixth in the 50-metre and 200-metre breaststroke events, and also made finals for the 100-metre backstroke. She was thrilled to drop more than 30 seconds off her previous best time in the 400-metre freestyle event.
In addition to their races, some swimmers were seen taking advantage of the large wave pool, river run and flowrider surf simulator in the H2O Centre.
Club members now look forward to another few weeks of practice before AA and AAA provincial meets. After that, the long-course season begins and continues until summer.
Anyone who is interested in joining the club or finding out more information can visit www.thekootenayswimclub.com
/Submitted by the
Kootenay Swim Club