The Sault Surge Aquatic Team was represented by 28 swimmers at the Border City Invitational swim meet over the December 1st to December 3rd weekend hosted by the Windsor Aquatic Club held at the International Training Centre. Nearly 1000 swimmers representing 19 swim clubs were in attendance.
This meet was the first opportunity for the local Surge athletes to compete in a preliminary and finals meet over 3 days and rose to the challenge by swimming to 169 new personal best times.
The Sault Surge ranked 15th overall finishing just 1.5 points behind the Dorado Stars Swim Club representing Caledon, Ontario.
The host team finished first overall followed by The Region of Waterloo Swim Club and the Whitby Dolphins.
Six Sault Surge swimmers stepped on the podium winning 7 medals in a competitive field.
Brie Reid picked up silver medals in the girls 14 years old 50m and 100m Breaststroke. Reid also set 4 new personal best times.
Will Banton won a silver in the 100m Freestyle and a bronze medal in the 40m freestyle in the boys 17 and over age group.
Alma Da Silva Castillejo swam to all personal best times in each swim she entered into and earned a silver in the girls 13 yrs old 800m freestyle. It was the first time that she was entered into that event.
Halen Leonard picked up a silver medal in the 400m Individual medley in the girls 15 years old age group as well as 4 personal best times.
Oliver Bennetto swam to a bronze medal in the boys 13 years old age group and 4 personal best times.
Andrew Li swam a 400m Individual medley for the first time winning a bronze medal. He also set 6 personal best times and qualified for finals in 7 events including the 100m backstroke and after setting new personal best times, and, club records, in both the preliminary and final swim just missed The Ontario Swimming Championship standard for his age group by .02 of a second.
Angela Thomson set 5 new personal best times including a new club record in the girls 10 and under age group 800m freestyle.
Emma Vallee swam to 7 personal best times over the 3 day event and picked up 2 qualification times for the Ontario Festivals Championships joining Thomson and Sophia Li.
Swimmers to set new personal best times in all events were Da Silva Castillejo and Erik Kary, Juliana Kaminski, Abigail Maguire, Eva Moreau, Jenna Morin, and Mackenna O’Leary.
Sault Surge swimmers will get a well deserved rest while the John Rhodes pool undergoes some maintenance before training for 2024 meets including the Sault Surge Aquatic Team hosted North Eastern Ontario Regional Dake Kensit Memorial Championships the first weekend in February at the John Rhodes Community Centre pool.
Source: Sault Surge
