By WILLIAM RITHALER
Stingrays Coaching Team
The Salt Spring Stingrays Summer Swim Team wrapped up their busy season with the BCSSA Provincial Championships, held at the University of British Columbia Aquatic Centre from Aug. 15-18.
Every swimmer worked incredibly hard to qualify for this meet, and the results across the board reflected the effort put into training throughout the May to August season to compete at the provincial level.
The Stingrays had 13 provincial qualifiers this year, with seven swimmers between the ages of nine and 17 years attending the provincial event.
Those who qualified by swimming at several regular season meets and the Vancouver Island Regional Meet on Aug. 2-4 but were unable to attend, were: Cecilia Cabello-Maclean, Mackenzie Slack and Violet Penner — all in the girls OCAT 1 200 freestyle relay, Zoe Sanchez-Wickland in the 100 breaststroke and 100 freestyle, James Penner and Liam Walsh as alternates. Congratulations to these team members!
The provincial championship wrap-up and results are as follows:
Jade Marshall (Div. 2) had a terrific weekend, starting out her 50 backstroke with a time of 44.33 and a 15th place seeding. By the end of the day, she had cut off nearly two seconds, swimming a 42.81 in her B final, improving her standing to 11th place in the province.
Matthias Woodley finished prelims in the 100 breaststroke seeded 13th. He showed a lot of resilience in his final, pushing through adversity and dropping 2.39 seconds from his preliminary swim, improving to 11th place, with a personal best time of 1:15.34. In the boys (Div. 7) 200 IM, Matthias had an awesome finals swim, dropping 2.9 seconds from his preliminary time and finishing in 11th place.
Grace Cole (OCAT 1, Div. 3) raced hard for two individual medals on the weekend. In the OCAT 1 girls’ 50 free, she started out seeded second with a time of 33.25 seconds. In preliminaries, she swam a time of 33.55, maintaining her second place standing. In the final, Grace stepped it up for an awesome time of 32.43, dropping.82 seconds for a gold medal! In the 100 IM, she maintained her fifth place standing throughout, dropping 1.22 seconds for a personal best time of 1:22.43. In the 50 backstroke, she was seeded third, dropping a total of 1.28 seconds, securing a silver medal in the final. Lastly, she placed fifth in 100 free, finishing in the top five in all four of her individual events.
Elyse Walsh had the opportunity this weekend to swim in three events, with the 50 fly being a wildcard swim. This means she was a designated alternate who had to be ready in case another swimmer was needed. Elyse received that opportunity, so she got a bonus swim on top of the two she had qualified in. Elyse placed in the top 20 of both her 50 fly and 100 freestyle swims. I am most proud of the effort and positive attitude she displayed throughout the weekend. In the 100 back, her effort in the preliminaries and in qualifying for the A final resulted in a sixth place finish, a huge accomplishment.
Pasley Hayden had a very exciting weekend with many firsts. It was her first provincial swim meet. In the Div. 4 girls 200 IM, she dropped 3.12 seconds from prelims to finals, swimming a best time by nearly a second and placing 12th. The highlight of her weekend was the 100 breaststroke, however. At the start of the day, Pasley was seeded in eighth place with a time of 1:27.96. After preliminaries, she had improved to sixth place with a best time of 1:26.49. In her first A final ever at provincials, Pasley had another incredible swim, with a personal best time of 1:25.5 and a further improved fifth-place finish.
Keegan Otsubo-Papp placed 12th in the boys (Div. 7) 50 freestyle. He dropped 26 seconds from preliminaries to finals. Keegan also had a terrific 100 backstroke. Finishing preliminaries in 11th place, he dominated the B final, winning by a significant stretch and dropping 3.19 seconds from preliminaries to finals for a ninth-place finish. On top of all this, he achieved a personal best in this gritty swim. Finally, his 100 freestyle resulted in a 14th-place finish.
Druehn Pinney placed sixth in the boys OCAT 2 50 fly, in what was a very tight A final (only one second separating the top nine swimmers). In the 100 freestyle, he placed ninth, winning his B final by a comfortable margin. He also placed ninth in 50 freestyle. The highlight of Druehn’s weekend was in his favourite event, the 100 backstroke, where he placed third in a very exciting final that was full of excitement and emotion. Achieving top-10 finishes in every event is not an easy feat, especially in the OCAT division where every swimmer trains year-round. This is a new field for Druehn and his commitment to sport is notable.
Three Stingrays also competed in Vancouver Island Regional Mixed Relays. A regional relay is a mixed event where boys and girls swim together as a team comprised of four members in their division from the entire Vancouver Island region, thus representing their Vancouver Island team.
In the OCAT 1 regional freestyle relay, Grace swam an exceptional anchor leg of 33.04 seconds to move her team from third to second place. Their combined efforts earned them a silver medal.
In the Div. 7 Mixed Medley Relay, Keegan swam a speedy backstroke entry leg of 30.88 seconds. His effort and focus contributed to the team’s third place finish and bronze medals for all.
In the OCAT 2 Mixed Medley Relay, Druehn’s backstroke leg led his team to a third-place finish in what would prove to be a very close final, and bronze medals for all.
On behalf of the coaching team, I would like to express my pride in these athletes and my opportunity to coach them throughout the season, and particularly to see them achieving personal goals at the regional and provincial swim meets, representing not only themselves but their teammates. I would personally like to congratulate each and every team member this year for their perseverance and effort, and thank them for the opportunity to play a part in their success.
Go Stingrays!