The 2015/16 short- course season for the Selkirks’ has been brilliant and the hard work and commitment they showed all winter has been well-rewarded.
A great season for Maggie Manning has led her to be invited to the Para-Olympic Trials in Toronto from April 3 to 7. Manning will swim all her best events and is ranked in the top-10 in the world for her age group in the Para-Olympic 400-metre freestyle.
Though she has the opportunity to qualify for the 2016 Games in Rio, her sights are set on the 2020 games in Tokyo.
Manning was not the only Selkirk swimmer to qualify for elite events.
Five swimmers qualified for the Western Canadian Championships held in Manitoba last month, including Torrey Mckee, Claire Hall, Molly Foggarty, Chantel Jeffrey, and Thomas Flahr.
Between them they had a great start to the long-course season, breaking more than 12 club records.
Jeffery, who was recovering from a few weeks of flu, dug deep to not only make finals but on the last day she won the Selkirks’ first Western Championships medal in the 1,500-m freestyle.
Coming off her Western Championships swim, Jeffrey was selected to swim for B.C. at the 2016 Prospects West meet to be held at the Olympic Trials in April and the Age Group Canadian National Swimming Championships to be held in Calgary at the end of July. She also qualified for the Senior Canadian Nationals to be held in Edmonton the first week in August.
Joining Jeffery at the Age Group Championships will be Foggarty and Ethan Skofteby.
Skofteby is also poised to be invited to become a member of the BC Summer Games Team.
In the AA Championships, which were held in Penticton, more than 500 swimmers came from around B.C. to compete.
The standard of racing was very high and it was very hard to make finals and or finish in the top eight. Swimmers that made the finals were Lauren Gridley-Haack, Claire Hall, Olin Mosher, Ty Webster-Locke and Torrey McKee.
Each of the swimmers picked up medals in the meet. Hall, who was at her first Swim BC Provincials, won bronze in the 100-m freestyle.
In the Swim BC AAA Provincial Championships, the Selkirks emerged as the third-highest ranked team from the Okanagan Region.