Airdrie swimmers came home with four medals and their best set times from the Killarney Swim Club (KSC) Invitational swim meet in Calgary on Nov. 17 to 19.
Twenty-eight of the Nose Creek Swim Association’s (NCSA) swimmers were from Airdrie mostly at the development level, which is the first level of competitive swimming.
Swim coach, Chad Thompson, said the weekend was a continuation of a great season so far.
Airdrie medalists included silver and double bronze medalist Xavier Johanson for the 50 metre freestyle, 50 metre backstroke, and the 50 metre butterfly, and bronze medalist Hadley Schneider for the 50-metre backstroke.
Other medalists from NCSA included bronze medalist Sophie Graham for the 200-metre medley and bronze medalist Julian Ha for the 50-metre backstroke.
“Nearly every single one of our swimmers had best times, if not in all, most of the events,” said Thompson.
Emerson Galye had the best time in every single one of her heats, Thompson added, while Megan Vinuya and Makayla Dreger both qualified for Alberta Winter Festivals, the fastest meet in the province for girls 10 and under.
Dreger qualified in 100 Freestyle at a time of 1:36.19 while Vinuya qualified in 50 Freestyle at a time of 41:13 and the 100 Freestyle at a time of 1:32.55.
“It was a really really great weekend,” Thompson said, adding what made it even better was the fact that most swimmers improved on their best times they set only three weeks ago.
“What I, as the coach, find the most rewarding is that we work on the small things [like] flip turns, how they come off the wall, holding their streamline, breathing off the first stroke,” he said. “The trick is what separates a good swimmer from a great swimmer is the ability to stay on those small things. A lot of great swimmers pride themselves in doing those things right, and as a result you get faster swims.”
NCSA started the season off strong, which could be a result of many of the kids practicing on their own throughout the summer, Thompson noted.
He noticed that many of his swimmers were at the Genesis Place pool over the summer, not just playing but swimming lanes.
“The one thing about swimming is the more you swim, the better you get,” Thompson said.
Their first meet this season was the Halloween Howler, which went exceptionally, he added.
During that meet, Dreger took off about six seconds during her 50 metre freestyle, followed by another four seconds shaved off during the last meet, according to Thompson.
“[That’s] 10 seconds in a 50 freestyle in a span of six weeks,” he said. “People swim for years to take off tenths of a second. So for these swimmers to be able to drop that amount of time in three weeks is pretty amazing.”
In December, all NCSA swimmers will hit some of the biggest meets of the year in Winnipeg, MNP in Calgary, as well as Cochrane.
Thompson noted he was excited to see how they will do in upcoming meets and expects them to “blow it out of the water.”
He said without fail the next practice after this recent meet will be the fastest and most efficient practice because they had such great success at the meet. They want more of that, he said.
Swimmers practice in Airdrie multiple times every week, as well as other pools in Calgary due to space and time restrictions.
Early morning practices out of Airdrie can be tough for parents and kids, and Thompson said the club had hoped to see another 50-metre pool in Airdrie, rather than a recreational pool.
Swim parents put in a lot of work, he added, including timing their kids during meets and taking courses to work at meets.
Thompson noted it takes a lot more than someone’s ability to swim to do well.
“They say it takes a community to raise a child, well it takes a community to build a swimmer,” he said.
