The Yorkton Storm Speed-swimming Club recently competed at the Saskatchewan "A" Provincial Championship and Junior Cup in Prince Albert. According to head coach Ashley Benko, a record number of Yorkton swimmers attended and they all turned in impressive performances.
"We had 11 YSSC swimmers attend the meet," said Benko. "It is the most we have ever sent to the meet." This is such an impressive number because once girls reach the age of 11 and boys reach the age of 12, they have to qualify for the meet by posting an "A" time."
Connor Watrych, Jacob Baker and Enrico Bijman attended the meet for the first time. Watrych, 11, swam in the Junior Cup, finishing in fifth place in the 50m butterfly with a four-second improvement from his personal best. Baker, 12, also finished fifth, but in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 47.56 seconds. Bijman, who is a 12-year-old Melville native, captured a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke.
"Our boys have been working hard this winter and their results are starting to show," said Benko. "Bijman is the first boy to medal with our club at Provincials in at least four years."
The remainder of the club's medals were won by four young ladies who have been putting the YSSC on the map as of late. Jayden Lang scooped up five medals at the meet, Jennifer Haczkewicz came home with four, Kelsey Haczkewicz won three and Jillian Just captured two.
Lang, who hails from Melville received her medals in the following races: gold in the 50m Fly narrowly missing a "AA" time by one second, silver in the 50m backstroke, silver in the 100m fly, silver in the 200m Individual medley (IM), and a bronze in the 50m freestyle.
Jennifer Haczkewicz won two gold medals, one in the 50m backstroke, and the second one was from the 100 IM where she swam a "AA" time enroot to winning the event. She also won a silver in the 100m free and a bronze in the 100m backstroke.
Kelsey Haczkewicz snagged the gold medal in the 50m freestyle, swimming the event in 32.35 seconds, just 0.33 seconds short of a "AA" time. After winning the event, she defended the provincial title that she won in the 50m free at the Saskatchewan Summer Games in Meadow Lake this past summer. She followed up the gold medal performance with a silver in the 50m breastroke and 100m IM.
Jillian Just won a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke and followed that up with a bronze medal in the 200m breaststroke.
Benko said that a couple of things really stood out about the efforts of the girls at this meet. First off, she pointed out that Lang and the two Haczkewicz girls were swimming as 13-year-olds in the 13-14 age category, meaning that they will return to the meet next year as the oldest swimmers in each event that they enter. Secondly, she added that Jennifer Haczkewicz won her four medals without swimming in two of her best events: the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle. She wasn't allowed to swim in those races because she had previously posted "AA" times in those races.
The meet in Prince Albert brought the short course season to an end for the club. The swimmers will now focus on the long course season, which takes place in 50m pools. This season poses training problems for the Yorkton crew because they swim year around in their 25m pool.
