Three Squamish Pirates Swim Club swimmers heaped up golden plunder during the B.C. Divisional swim meet at Vancouver Aquatic Centre, while the rest of the team returned with plentiful bounty.
It was a much-needed morale boost for a team that had been competition-starved throughout the pandemic, and was chomping at the bit for action.
“We have had a great season leading into this meet so I was very confident that the kids were ready both mentally and physically to perform well. We have had one of those seasons, leading up to this, that had momentum building and the energy was high,” said coach Kelly Kaye.
“Our swimmers seem to be swimming personal bests every time they get on the block to race. It’s not often that it’s like that so right now it feels pretty exciting.”
Maple Castellanos, Alyssa Guerin, and Lukas Buck were the trio of buccaneers who reached the podium’s summit, with Castellanos taking home gold in 200 fly, Guerin earning the top spot in both the 100 and 800 freestyle, and Buck winning the 50 and 100 fly.
The trio had a number of other top-eight performances, with each of them making the cut at least four or five times.
Castellanos made finals in seven events.
“The meet went very well. We were fortunate enough to have our entire team qualify to race, so having the entire club there was pretty amazing. Personally, I feel like every one of my swimmers had at least one breakthrough race,” she said.
“Our first year of our winter competitive program was cut short due to COVID-19, so having all of the swimmers at a provincial level meet coming out of 1.5 years of lockdowns and altered training schedules was just so amazing. I am so honoured to lead such a dedicated, motivated and resilient group of kids.”
The other five top performers for the meet were Brodie Buck, Jennibelle Lin, Fraser Hamilton, Ryan Sweeney and Ben Sweeney. Buck placed fourth and sixth in the 50 freestyle and the 50 breast. Lin placed in six events, becoming the only swimmer to make finals in all four strokes. Hamilton came sixth in the 200 back, while Ben Sweeney came 4th once (50 fly) and 6th twice (50 freestyle and 50 backstroke). Meanwhile his brother Ryan came sixth in the 50 fly.
This win bodes well for the team as they prepare for their first long course competition in early April. They also have a swimmer qualified for western nationals. And though they only took 20 swimmers to this recent meet, they have many more ready to don an eye patch and rattle their cutlass.
“We are a family, a culture, so to say. We have another 80 or so swimmers who will start competing in the spring and summer. Each one of these swimmers started off in our development program as summer swimmers and now have risen to the provincial and soon the national level,” said Kaye.
“When they aren’t swimming, most of them are giving back in one way or another by coaching the younger parts of our program. It’s pretty special, and I honestly think their roots here have helped to keep them grounded through a pretty tough two years.”
