The Yorkton Speed Swimming Club sent 12 swimmers to the RYMM Spring Break-Out long course swim meet in Regina recently. Coach Ashley Benko says, "it's great to see such big numbers representing Yorkton in competitive swimming. Our kids have put in the time in the pool training all winter long and it is really paying off now."
Each time the swimmers take to the pool in competitions they look to improve personal best times and qualify for future competitions. At the Regina event, Jennifer Haczkewicz, 11, became the first swimmer in the club to record an ``AA Time`` this season. She swam the AA Time in the 12 and under girls 50m backstroke and finished second in the race in the process. Recording the AA Time qualifies Jennifer to compete in the Manitoba vs Saskatchewan ``ManSask Meet`` this July in Winnipeg.
Haczkewicz along with Jessica Sanftleben (16) and Jayden Lang (11) are chasing an AA Time in the 50m freestyle event. All three girls are exactly one second away from achieving the standard. Meeting the time standard would allow Sanftleben and Lang to accompany their teammate to the Winnipeg meet.
Swimmers can qualify for the Provincial Championship Swim Meet by swimming an ``A Time`` in competition. Haczkewicz, Sanftleben and Lang have already accomplished this feat by swimming several A Times in competition.
At the Regina meet, the trio was joined by Kelsey Haczkewicz, who recorded two A Times, one in the 50m breaststroke where she placed second and one in the 200m breaststroke. Benko is hoping to add Matthew Todas` name to the fearless foursome in the near future. He is currently one second away from recording his first A Time in the 12 and under boys 50m freestyle event. Todas had a great meet, recording two top five finishes, placing fourth in the 100m freestyle and fifth in the 50m breaststroke.
"Each of the twelve swimmers in attendance had at least one top ten finish," Benko added, "that's never happened before, hats off to all of them."
Jessica Sanftleben had the most top ten finishes at the meet, recording five of them. The Melville swimmer had the following placings; eighth in the 100m backstroke, fifth in the 100m freestyle, second in the 200m freestyle, third in the 50m backstroke, and she ended the meet with ninth place finish in the 50m freestyle. Jacob Baker finished ninth in the 100m freestyle along with a fifth place showing in the 50m breaststroke.
Jayden Lang, also of Melville, recorded four top ten finishes at the swim meet; second in the 100m butterfly, fifth in the 100m freestyle, eighth in the 50m backstroke, and ninth in the 50m butterfly race. Jennifer Haczkewicz also recorded four top ten finishes; ninth in the 100m backstroke, seventh in the 100m freestyle, sixth in the 200m backstroke, and second in the 50m backstroke event. Matthew Todas joined the girls in recording four top ten finishes as well. He raced to a fourth place finish in the 100m freestyle, sixth in the 200m freestyle, sixth in the 50m backstroke, and fifth in the 50m breaststroke.
Jillian Just turned in a sixth place showing in the 100m Breaststroke, ninth place in the 100m freestyle, and finished the meet with a eighth place finish in the 200m freestyle event. Kelsey Haczkewicz finished seventh in the 100m breaststroke, 10th in the 100m Freestyle, and second in the 50m breaststroke.
Zoe Flaman finished 10th in the 100m breaststroke event.
``While we all can`t stand atop the podium every time we race, shaving precious seconds off of our race times is a huge indicator that we are heading in the right direction,`` says Benko.
``We had some swimmers boast humungous improvements to their personal best times at this meet,`` she added. Julian Abrametz, swimming in his first out of town meet shaved 20 seconds off of his 100m Freestyle time. Auston Roberts, a 10 year old swimmer with the club, wiped a full minute off of his 100m breaststroke event, and followed it up by taking 36 seconds off of his 100m backstroke race.
Zoe Flaman, a nine year old racer, chopped 23 seconds off of her 100m breaststroke and 50m backstroke, and erased 22 seconds from her 50m breaststroke. Her sister Alex, a 12-year old veteran with the club swam her 200m Individual Medley nine seconds faster. Other impressive improvements were turned in by Emma Just, Jacob Baker and Jillian Just. Emma took 14 seconds of her 100m breaststroke time, Jacob took 13 seconds off of his 50m breaststroke time and Jillian shaved seconds off in many of her events at the meet.
The next action for the squad is a Long Course meet in Saskatoon, early in April. Long Course meets are held in pools that are 50m long. Yorkton's pool, measuring 25m in length, was the host of a short course meet in December.
