Swim season began with a splash Sunday morning as the Pirates hosted a home meet at Brennan Park.
In all, 333 swimmers from clubs around the Lower Mainland took part in the events running throughout the day. Along with the Pirates, the North Shore Winter Club Marlins, North Vancouver Cruisers, Vancouver Super Sharks, Port Moody Aquarians and Burnaby Barracuda sent swimmers to compete.
“A lot of the people thought it was the best meet they had been to in a long time and it was really well organized,” said Pirates head coach Kelly Kaye.
Of the Pirates’ 73 competitors, many posted strong finishes.
“A lot of the kids were swimming best times or on their best times already,” Kaye said.
“The kids swam really well,” she said. “We were really focussing on building that team environment.”
There were even inspiring moments when the youngest swimmers from many teams took to the pool. Some of them were accompanied by adults as spotters while they swam the 25-metre length of the pool.
In the div. 1 boys, everyone inside the pool area started clapping and chanting “Go, Kai, go,” to urge on a youngster from the North Vancouver team as he struggled to complete his two laps, occasionally having to touch the lane buoys for a break. When he finished, many onlookers gave him a big cheer.
Others among the youngest swimmers looked like they been in the pool since birth, such as the Pirates’ Felix Fota, who despite being in the six and under category not only did not need accompaniment but sliced through the 25M freestyle like a swimmer far older. Once he touched the wall, he gave a fist pump and held up a triumphant index finger while people cheered him on.
For the Pirates, the division 7 girls’ team of Alex Jevons (backstroke), Avery Masselink (breast), Myrthe Haddeman (butterfly) and Mikayla Lorimer (freestyle) broke a relay record on 2:19.68 that had stood since 1998. They finished with a time of 2:19.05.
Jevons, who also coaches the Mateys and Mini-Mateys program, won an aggregate award for scores in all her races, having finished first in 200 individual medley (IM), 50 freestyle, 50 butterfly and 100 backstroke.
“She had a really good meet,” Kaye said.
Among the other strong finishers were: Evangeline Gultiano – third in div. 1-girls 100IM; Felix Fota, first in six and under boys 25M free and back; Jeremy Ellithorpe, third in six and under boys 25M free and back; coach Mikayla Lorimer, first in div. 6-girls 200IM, second in 100M back and third in 50M free and fly; Myrthe Haddeman, first in 6-girls 50M fly and fourth in 50M free; Eli Tindall, second in 6-boys 200M IM and 100 back, third in the 50M fly and fourth in 50M free; Ryan Sweeny, first in 1-boys 100M free and 50M fly; Brian McDonald, second in 2-boys 100M free; Joshua Lee, third in 4-boys 100M breast; Mees Haddeman, second in 5-boys 50M free, third in 50M fly and 200M IM and fourth in 100M back; coach Oli Jarrett, third in 7-boys 50M fly; and coach Wyatt Pederson, third in 8-boys 50M free. Kaye took first in 8-girls 100M breast.
Along with the 7-girls relay win, the team posted relay seconds in girls and boys division 1, girls division 2, boys division 3, boys and girls division 8 as well as a third in boys division 6.
The team is now training for a meet this weekend in Richmond. Kaye expects to bring about 25 swimmers to the meet on Saturday and Sunday.
“Now, we’re going to be carrying momentum,” she said. “It’s going to be an exciting year for us.”
