It may be early in the swimming season, but the younger members of the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins are making big strides.
The Fins sent 35 swimmers to the Fall Freeze Out at the Lawson Acquatic Centre in Regina this past weekend. It was a meet they co-hosted with the Regina Marlins swim club. Most of those swimmers swam at least three personal best swims at the meet. All told the Fins swam 153 personal bests and 25 new A times.
“With the results I don’t even know where to begin,” said Fins head coach Monty Smith. “Lauran (Armbruster) took off 15 seconds on her 800 free, Nathan (Avery) took 32 seconds off of his 800 free, Sydney Booth took 13 seconds off a 200 back, Joey Doerksen took 68 seconds off of a 200 back ... Catherine (Duchesne) had three new A times right off the bat. Alex Folk — he took a couple of years off and is one of my older swimmers — he took 81 seconds off (of a 200 IM).”
Sydney Booth had four new A times, six personal bests and won a pair of races. Catherine Duschesne and Polly Hantjidis each set three new A times and Hantjidis also had six P.B.s.
Jenna Helland and Robyn Read each had two new A times and five person bests. Kendal Paulson had two new A times and four P.B.s.
Nathan Avery, Theo Handjitis and Gabrielle Robitaille each set a new A time and six personal bests. Jay Boulton, Joey Doerksen, Alex Folk, Olivia Nichols, Ryann Terry and Richard Tipper also swam a new A time.
Mark Froehlich, Matthew Gobbett and Chloe Merifield each had six new personal bests. Dallas Erickson, Rielle Gobbett, Austin Lin, Caitlin Miller and Rebecca Schultz each had five personal bests.
Myaleah Mathies, Matthew Merifield and Connor Pippus had four personal bests, Armbruster, Jared Booth, Jordan Boulton, Lily Mathies, Kael Nichols and Elyssa Tacchi each had three personal bests, while Cadence Johns, Rainer Olson and Grace Waldenberger had two apiece.
“Everyone did great,” said Smith who noted that most of the swimmers that took part are under the tutelage of Tamara Myers and Mykea Jundt.
“For the younger ones, these are the benchmarks for these kids at the start of the year.”
The meet drew 174 swimmers from 13 clubs.
