Eight Summerland ORCA swim club members joined the Kelowna-West Side Integrated Club (KWIC), an Okanagan high-performance team, to finish fourth and fifth respectively at the provincial championships held in Penticton and Kamloops this month.
“Being part of KWIC high-performance team has really opened up the eyes of our local Summerland athletes. They can compete at the highest level and they don’t need to live in a metro city to have all the opportunities to advance in this sport,” said head coach Delano Ducheck.
Leading the Summerland contingency was Sydney Wilson (12) and Desmond Ducheck (10) who both had top individual finishes of sixth place. Sydney Wilson also won gold, silver and bronze medals as part of KWIC relay teams.
In the 13 and over category, Taylor Smith (15) and Brooklyn Parliament (15), finished with best times and top 16 finishes in the 200m backstroke and 50m freestyle, swimming their way to club records in both events.
Also breaking club records were Ducheck, Holden Berrisford, and Wilson.
Posting their best times were Summerland’s Conner Berrisford, Holden Berrisford, Emily Jell and Ducheck. Big time drops were had by Emily Jell, 18-second drop in the 200m backstroke; Arlo Kast, 16-second drop in 200m butterfly; Wilson, 12-second drop in 100 IM and topping the list was a 52-second improvement by Ducheck in the 400 IM.
“These time drops are huge even for young swimmers. Just as impressive are the one to four-second improvements by the older swimmers who sometimes train an entire season for these types of improvements,” said coach Ducheck.
This championship season marks the midway point in the swimming calendar. After a short break, swimmers will resume with a spring training camp and the beginning of the long course (50m swimming pool) season which runs from April through to the July provincial championships.
Smith and Parliament are heading to Victoria in April for the Western Canadian Championships, where the top swimmers from B.C. to Manitoba face off over a four-day competition.