Airdrie’s Nose Creek Swim Association (NCSA) had an excellent showing at Age Group Provincial Championships, held March 9 to 11 at the Talisman Centre in Calgary.
The club, which swims out of Airdrie’s Genesis Place, the Talisman Centre and Calgary’s Thornhill pool, won one a bronze medal, had 19 top-eight and 46 top-16 finishes.
“I feel that the kids did extremely well,” said Alexx Diep, Airdrie’s assistant head coach. “The focus was on improvement and all stepped up and responded well to the coaches expectations.”
Airdrie’s Ethan Smith, 11, earned the club’s only medal at the meet, taking home the bronze in the 200-metre backstroke with a time of 2:56.26.
Smith, who is coached by Robin Loyola, rewrote the boys 10-and-under club record twice, during preliminaries and finals. Smith also earned top-eight finishes in the 200- and 400-metre freestyle, and the 100- and 50-metre backstroke events.
Airdrie’s Reid Glatz, 11, swam in six finals, narrowly missing a medal. He earned his chance to compete in the finals in the boys 12-and-under 100-metre backstroke with a time of 1:13.43.
Andrea Gibson, a 14-year-old student at George McDougall High School who recently competed at Canadian Western Championships, earned top-eight finishes in the 50-metre freestyle, 100-metre Individual Medley, and the 50-, 100- and 200-metre butterfly events. Gibson just missed the podium in the 50-metre butterfly with a time of 30.07.
Airdronian Elaina Smith, 14, swam in the 50- and 100-metre freestyle final events.
Zach McLeod, 11, had a good showing in the boy’s 12-and-under category, competing in the 100- and 200-metre backstroke and 50-, 100- and 200-metre breaststroke finals.
École Airdrie Middle School student Daniel Paquette, 14, had five top-16 finishes in several events including the 800-metre freestyle, the 50-, 100- and 200-metre butterfly and 200-metre Individual Medley.
Zander Glatz, 14, competed in the 50-, 100- and 200-metre butterfly final events. Chestermere’s Stephanie Churcher competed in the 200-metre breaststroke final and placed 13th in the 1,500-metre freestyle event.
Airdrie’s Melia St. Louis swam in the 50-metre backstroke final.
Nose Creek earned enough points to finish in 10th place among the more than 30 teams at the meet, beating last year’s team showing of 12th place.
The club almost doubled its roster with 21 qualifying athletes when compared to last year’s numbers.
“We are definitely improving on all facets,” said Diep. “We set personal improvement goals and team goals for (the swimmers) and both were met successfully. There is a strong desire to compete and to win as a team among the NCSA swimmers, this is very exciting to see.”
Four team members were recognized during the event for their superior speed swimming this season. Calgary’s Jonathan Brown swam faster than the average Top One time in the country, McLeod was recognized for a Top Five in Alberta and both Gibson and Calgary’s Mackenzie Ponting were honoured with Top 25 in Canada times.
Diep was selected for coaching staff of the Prospect West 2012 Team, comprised of the best 13- and 14-year-old swimmers in Alberta.
“The coaching staff is extremely thrilled with our success at this meet,” said Diep.
“This has been a thrilling and rewarding ride of success since early February with three NCSA swimmers at Canadian Western Champs, a national level meet. The momentum and excitement was then passed on to the provincial level swimmers who did extremely well and surpassed all our expectations.”
