Golden Plains Invitational ~ Some Great Swims for our Sharks!

Thirteen Kenora Swimmers travelled to Winnipeg to compete in this meet April 30-May 3. The Sharks had a very good weekend all around with some impressive results including some National Age Group qualifying times! Full meet results are available on the Swim Canada Website. Some highlights include the fact that all thirteen Kenora swimmers swam to personal best times in at least one event and all thirteen qualified for finals in at least one of their events including 10 year old Lisle Compton. Congratulations Lisle on your first final!

Click here for a team report by swimmer name.

Kenora’s top finishers with top three finishes in every one of their individual events were Michelle Balcaen (14) who swam to a first place finish in six events (50, 100, 200, 400 & 1500 Free, 50 Fly) and second place in two events (100 Fly & 100 Back) and a third (200 Back) and Paige Murphy (12) who finished first in seven events ( 200 & 400IM, 100 & 200 Breast, 100 & 200 Fly and 400 Free) and a second (200 Free) and a third (100 Free). Congratulations Michelle and Paige for winning the GPI 2009 Age Group Awards for 13&14 Girls and 12 & under Girls.

Other top three finishers include:

Laura Stasiuk (19) 1st – 400 IM, 2nd – 50 Fly, 200 Fly & 3rd – 200 IM, 200 Breast, 100 Fly

Bryn Jones (12) 2nd – 50 fly, 3rd – 100fly

Bryce Jones (11) 3rd – 200 back, 3rd – 50 back

Kaity Inookee (13) 3rd – 400IM, 200 Fly

Cheyenne Cameron (12) 2nd – 50 fly

Ronan Cameron (15) 1st – 1500 Free

COACHES NOTES:

A really good swim meet for the thirteen participating KSS swimmers. All swimmers swam quite well, with many recording 100% Personal Best Times. All our swimmers earned second swims in either A Finals or B Finals, and our team finished the swim meet a solid 3rd in Team Points behind Manta and the Marlins. Very special “congratulations” for the following really exceptional accomplishments by KSS swimmers: Laura Stasiuk (19) who earned another Canadian Senior National Championship Qualifying Time [QT] in the 400 IM ~ 5:07.19; Kaity Inookee (13) who earned her 2nd Canadian Age Group Nationals QT in the 200 Fly ~ 2:33.58; and Paige Murphy (12, but soon to be 13) who added to her Age 13 – Canadian Age Group Nationals QT’s in the 200 Fly ~ 2:35.60, 100 Free ~ 1:02.91; 200 Free ~ 2:15.++, and the 400 Free ~ 4:43.31

We also had some other pretty special accomplishments: Lisle Compton (10) earned a spot in the 12 and Under Girls 200 Back B Final ~ 3:03.33; Sara Marcine (11) qualified for her 1st ever A Final in the 100 Breast ~ 1:34.98 as well as B Finals in the 200 Breast ~ 3:22.62 and 200 Free ~ 2:36.++; and Conor O’Flaherty (14) earned his 1st ever swims in the A Finals ~ 1500 Free ~ 19:17.87; 400 Free ~ 4:59.33; 200 Back ~ 2:41.50 and 400 IM ~ 5:46.16; and B Finals ~ 100 Free ~ 1:03.44 and 200 Free ~ 2:18.83

I was really very pleased with our swimmers. They handled the stress of competition quite well, and can now look forward to a long eight week training cycle leading up to our Championship Swim Meets in July.