The Yorkton Storm Speed Swimming Club sent fourteen swimmers to the Michelle Moore Swim Meet hosted by the RODS in Regina. The Regina Optimist Dolphins Swim Club, the largest swim club in Regina, ran the meet in conjunction with the Canada Games Trials for older swimmers.
"The competition between the older athletes to make the Canada Games Team added some real excitement for our young swimmers at the meet," said Storm head coach Ashley Benko. "A few of those top-notch swimmers may have a legitimate shot of making our National Swim Team one day down the road so it was good to have our kids see them up close."
The meet was set up with preliminary races swam in the morning. The top eight swimmers in each category advanced to the finals that were swam each evening. Jennifer Haczkewicz, 13, led the way making the finals in all six of her events at the meet. Jennifer's highlights were two silver medal performances in the 50m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly, and a bronze in the 50m Backstroke.
Jillian Just, 14, came home from the meet with the club's only other medal, a bronze in the 50m Breaststroke. She, like 13-year-old Kelsey Haczkewicz, swam in five finals at the meet.
Jacob Baker, 13, swam the 50m Breaststroke in 45.49 sec. to capture sixth place. More importantly, the time he swam was an "A" time which will qualify him for the Provincial Long Course Championship Meet that is coming up in Moose Jaw. Baker was also awarded the club's newly established "Storm Chaser Award." This award is given out to the swimmer that takes the most time off of his/her races on average throughout the meet. Jacob averaged an improvement of 15.67 seconds in his races at the meet to claim the award. Matthew Just finished second with an improvement of 8.38 seconds and Gabe Loster was next with an improvement of 8.17 seconds per race on average.
Matthew Just, who was swimming in just his second meet with the club as a 10-year-old, made the final in the 50m Breaststroke where he finished in seventh place. Tea Rohatensky, 10, also made her first final in the 100m Freestyle where she placed eigth.
According to Benko the meet produced some big numbers in what she calls the "Movers and Shakers" category, the spot for swimmers that take huge amounts of time off of their previous best times. "We had five of our swimmers take 16 or more seconds off in one of their races at the meet," Benko proclaimed. Jacob Baker lead the way taking 34 seconds off his 200m IM time, Tea Rohatensky took 33 seconds off her 100m Freestyle and Emma Just took 31 seconds off her 200m Freestyle race for third. Jillian Just erased 22 seconds in her 200m IM and Paxtyn Kruger took 16 seconds off of her 100m Freestyle to round out the top five.
The next meet for the club is the Provincial Long Course Championship Meet that is being held in Moose Jaw on June 21-23.
