By Eliza McGuire, Revelstoke Aquaducks
This past weekend saw the Kamloops Tsunami host 14 teams from three different regions across the province, some from as far as Prince George. This heats-and-finals meet was a great reminder of all the fast swimming that goes on in other regions, as new competition emerged to push all the swimmers to go faster.
The first day ended with three new club records: Ryder Litke got his name up on the board for breaking Andrew Russell’s Division 1 boys 50m butterfly record from 1991, and Beth Granstrom bettered her own record in the Division 4 girls 200m individual medley. Jackson Litke and James LeBuke once again battled it out in the 200m individual medley, both ending the meet under the previous record from 1984 held by Graham Gale, with Litke edging out LeBuke.
Records aside, the best moment was after the race, when the two celebrated each other’s victories, taking what could have been a bitter moment and turning it into a mutual victory in a spectacular showing of sportsmanship from both boys.
Day two started sunny, and remained so through preliminaries but clouded over as warm-ups for finals began. Ominous black clouds blocked the sun at the outdoor Brock pool, and soon wind and rain had taken over. Tents were lifted from the ground and heat sheets needed to be weighted down while umbrellas came out, but finals went on despite the crazy weather.
However, crazy weather apparently brings out crazy-fast swimming in the Ducks as Granstrom broke a meet record in the 100m backstroke, and Brynn Hoshizaki moved up from fourth to claim second place right behind her. Right behind the girls were Litke and LeBuke who nabbed the top two spots — both under the old meet record and the club record set last weekend, with Litke bettering his record by just over a second.
Finishing the meet second overall in team scores, the Ducks had a very successful weekend with many aggregates. Litke won a bronze aggregate for Division 1 boys and Megan Hoshizaki won a silver for Division 2 girls, joining her sister Brynn Hoshizaki who won a silver in the Division 4 girls category.
Just in front of Brynn was Granstrom, who won a gold aggregate. In Division 4 boys, LeBuke won a silver aggregate behind Jackson Litke, who won gold. Gina Cinelli won a gold aggregate for Division 6 girls, and Emily Pfeiffer won a bronze aggregate for Division 7 girls. Rosemary Kellsal won a silver aggregate for Division 8 girls, while Eliza McGuire picked up the gold. Cam Molder tied for a silver aggregate in the Division 8 boys, and James Pilla ran away with a Gold aggregate to go with his multiple meet records.
Next up is Golden, famous for its fun dress-up relays, next weekend.