This Trail Stingrays hosted the Kootenay Regional Championship Swim Meet at the Trail Aquatic Centre on the weekend with local swimmers punching their tickets to the provincial championship in Kamloops later this month.
“Overall the Stingrays swam great races proving that the summer season of hard training did indeed pay off,” said Stingrays coach Samme Beatson.
The top three swimmers in each event at Regionals qualify to attend the provincial swim meet on Aug. 17. Logan Blair, Elijah Grebe, Kayla Fraser, Madison Green, and Jennifer Chung qualified for the Provincial championship in all four of their events. Josh Ballarin, Diego Greenwood, Nicole Merry and Juliana Zhou qualified in three events, and Georgia Merry, Josie Dunham and Reid Dunham qualified in two events.
Grebe had an outstanding meet breaking one minute in his 100-metre freestyle race, and was awarded the Russell Beattie Memorial award for the top performance in Division-6 boys breaststroke. Chung broke the Open Category 2 Regional record in 100 breaststroke by seven seconds with her time of 1:23.47.
Of the Stingrays that qualified for provincials, Blair and Greenwood, along with assistant coaches Green and Chung will join other provincial qualifiers from the Kootenays to represent the region. We are very proud of and optimistic for these swimmers.
Other Stingrays who shone in the pool include Connor and Reid Dunham who each swam seven personal best times, and Georgia Merry, Reuben Demmler, and Logan Blair with six best times apiece.
The Stingrays placed fourth overall in the team points standing, an outstanding result with only 18 swimmers in attendance.