The Yorkton Storm Swim Club had six swimmers attend the recently held Man-Sask Championships in Saskatoon. Sending six swimmers to the meet was a new club record for attendance, as all swimmers had to qualify by previously posting a ‘AA Time.’ This meet was the largest swim meet that many of the swimmers had ever attended with over 600 swimmers taking part.
Normally the Man-Sask meet attracts a few clubs from Alberta and Western Ontario. This year there were 48 different clubs in attendance. Teams ranged from as far west as the University of Victoria Team to as far east as Oshawa and London, Ontario. With this being an Olympic year the hordes of swimmers were there in an attempt to qualify for the Olympic Trials Swim Meet, which is just a couple of weeks away. Â
Andriy Usan was the club’s most successful swimmer at the meet. Usan, competing in his first Man-Sask event, qualified for the B-Final in the 50m Butterfly and finished 12th overall. He also added two more ‘AA’ times to his repertoire, reaching the standard in the 50m and 100m Freestyle events. Usan rounded out the meet by capturing the Storm Chaser Award for the second meet in a row, this time by improving 2.14 seconds on average for his seven swims at the meet. Matlyn Bulych also added another ‘AA’ time to her portfolio, swimming the standard time in 50m Butterfly.
The club will now switch its focus to the long course season which will kick off in late April with a meet in Saskatoon.