Bree Cooper competed in the prestigious and highly competitive JP Fiset swim event that hosts several top Western Canadian swim teams, from Dec. 12 to 14 in Edmonton.
Cooper had an amazing start to the meet, qualifying third in the morning preliminaries for the 100-metre breaststroke with a personal best time, and won gold in the final heat.
Her time in the 100-m breaststroke qualifies her to swim at the World Championship Trials meet in Toronto in April.
Cooper followed that up with a silver medal in the 50-m breaststroke, where she again met the Canadian Trials standard. Cooper then earned a bronze medal in her speciality, the 100-m butterfly.
Cooper had two fourth-place finishes as well in an exciting weekend of swimming. Cooper trains locally but travels regularly to West Kelowna to train.
She now turns her attention to the Western Canadian Championships in March in Edmonton, and then World Game Trials in Toronto in April.
Cooper, who is in Grade 12, will swim for Simon Fraser University next year.
The Selkirk swim team recently attended a large swim meet in Kamloops that hosted more than 20 teams, many from the Coast and Alberta, in the largest meet of the year. The 16-member team brought back eight gold medals for a total of 23 medals in all.
The team was led by Jacob Rambo, who dominated the 11- and 12-year-old category with four gold medals, three silver and a bronze.
In the 13 and 14 girls, Chantel Jeffrey, Molly Fogarty, Morgan Rasmuson and Lilli Rakose had a great meet – led by Jeffrey’s five-medal performance including a national age group qualifying 100-m butterfly swim.
Fogarty, 13, continued her break out season and also achieved a national age group qualifying time in the 200-m butterfly, where she won the bronze to go along with her four top-eight results.
Rasmuson returned to competition after more than a year’s absence and made the finals in the 100-m backstroke to go along with five personal-best swims. Rakose had five best times and top-16 results in the breastroke races. Maggie Manning completed the girls’ results with three gold medals in the para-events.
On the boys’ side, Ethan Pyle stepped up with three great breaststroke swims. He made the finals in the 100-m breaststroke and qualified for the AA Provincials in Chilliwack later in the year. Thomas Flahr made four finals and qualified for the Western Canadian Championships. Ethan Quilty had a great meet, making one final and had seven best -time swims.
Ty Webster-Locke continued his strong season and his new talent in backstroke with two finals and four other top-16 swims.
Olin Mosher had an amazing meet with all eight swims being best times. Logan Pilas oldest member of the team, led with three finals swims, a strong relay lead off and five best times.