By Eliza McGuire, Revelstoke Aquaducks
The Aquaducks competed in Salmon Arm this weekend after completing their Challenge Week, only to find the meet itself an extended challenge. Boasting six events, heats and finals, most swimmers found themselves racing an intimidating 14 times over two days. In true Aquaduck fashion, the kids swam their hearts out and rallied for an impressive third place overall, as well as a multitude of personal bests.
Stepping up with huge swims was Megan Hoshizaki, taking off enough time over the weekend where if added up she could have potentially lapped herself, earning herself a bronze aggregate for Division 2 girls. Madeline Hobgood also had a stand-out meet, winning all six individual events to snag herself a gold aggregate for Division 1 girls.
Beth Granstrom also won all her races this weekend and broke two meet records for the Division 4 girls in the 200m individual medley and the 100m backstroke on her way to a gold aggregate. Her teammate, Brynn Hoshizaki, moved up in her events to win the silver aggregate for Division 4 girls, and coach Emily Pfieffer swam up to a bronze aggregate despite only swimming four events. Winning her first aggregate of the season was Division 3 girl Maya McDowell, whose gutsy swims earned her a bronze.
On the boys side, personal bests were everywhere. Alex Jay broke 40 seconds for the first time in the 50m backstroke, helping him in the aggregate race to a silver for the Division 3 boys. Ryder Litke fought hard all weekend to win a bronze aggregate against some of the toughest competition in the province for Division 1 boys with multiple bests.
James LeBuke and Jackson Litke once again took the silver and gold aggregates respectively, with one of the two boys winning every event.
However, winning was not all that was positive about the meet. For the first time Lizzy McDowell did all three flip-turns in her 100m freestyle, and William Hobgood swam his first 100m freestyle. Leif Winter swam at his first meet ever, and despite entering many young swimmers, Revelstoke had the least disqualifications of any team in attendance, both over-all and per capita, which is perhaps the most encouraging of everything heading into regionals two weeks from now in Kelowna, where the Aquaducks look to qualify more kids than ever for provincials in Kamloops.