By Eliza McGuire, Revelstoke Aquaducks
The Revelstoke Aquaducks got the 2015 summer swim season off to a great start over the weekend, winning the top girls team, top boys team as well as top overall team for the first time in club history.
With the combined scores of the boys and girls, the Aquaducks finished less than 130 points in front of the Kelowna Ogopogos to win the meet, with the Ducks bringing in a whopping 3996 points to the Ogopogos 3867 over the two days of competition.
A large part of this victory can be credited to the relays, which are worth double points, which were swam clean and without disqualifications throughout both days.
Under-six Emilie Paquin stepped in as alternate and swam above her age category for both the Division 1 and 2 Girls relays, and saved both the teams from scratching, which would have cost the Ducks two third place finishes and more than 60 points. Also swimming up was U6 Cohen Maddison on the Boys Division 4 relays that both placed top three.
Being the first meet of the season with no finals, normally personal bests are sparse. However, this year all the Ducks either got at least one new personal best, or were within five per cent of a lifetime best. First meet jitters did not stop senior Gina Cinelli from making club history by breaking the oldest record on the board in the Division 7 Girls 100 metre breaststroke, and also winning a gold aggregate for the Girls Division 7.
The success of the Revelstoke team was showcased by the sheer dominance during the aggregate awards at the end of the meet. The Revelstoke Aquaducks swept the Divison 1 and 2 Girls, with Autumn Griffith-Doyle winning gold for the Girls Division 1, Nyola Willms the silver, and Emma Mair the bronze. Kayln Gale won the gold for Division 2, Sani Supinen the silver, and Madeleine Hobgood the bronze.
Boys Division 1 was also very strong with Ryder Litke winning the gold and Bence Berkenbosch the bronze. Division 2 Boys had Murdoch Tegart winning the silver.
In Division 3, the girls had Devyn Gale winning the silver, with Alex Jay winning gold for the boys. In Division 4 Boys, Nolan Gale and James LeBuke won gold and silver respectively. In Division 5 Boys, Jackson Litke won silver in his category.
In Division 7, Katie Howard won her first ever aggregate by finishing directly behind teammate Gina Cinelli for the silver. Nadia Salon won the Girls Division 8 gold, with assistant coach Julia Gow picking up the silver.
The Revelstoke Aquaducks would like to thank all their sponsors and volunteers who helped make this event such a success. The Ducks have a bottle drive this coming weekend before they are back to competition the weekend following in Lumby.