The Salmon Arm Sockeyes continued their hot streak in the pool over the long weekend, qualifying to move on to a provincial competition.
The team competed in the Okanagan Regional Championships held in Kamloops at the Brocklehurst Recreation Centre’s outdoor pool.
There were nine teams competing at the Okanagan regionals over the weekend and the Salmon Arm Sockeyes came out on top for total points collected over the entire weekend by all swimmers, beating out the second place Kelowna Ogopogo’s by 43 points.
Related: Sockeyes host invitational swim meet
The Regionals is the qualifying swim meet for the B.C. Summer Swimming Provincials, which hit the water August 17-19 in Surrey. To qualify, swimmers must finish top three in an individual event. Many veteran Sockeyes provincial qualifiers will be joined by some first-time qualifiers from the club for the 2018 event.
Reese Major and Joel Giesbrecht qualified in all four of their division 1 events with very strong swims all weekend long. Ian Calkins also qualified, for the first time, in two of his division 1 events. Caillie Vicars and Trinity Blacklock will also be representing the Sockeyes in the division 4 and division 5 100m breaststroke events at Provincials this year, their first time at the competition.
Other first-time qualifiers who will be supporting relay teams include Tye Major in division 1 and Lane Kaasa, Lucas Hansen and Mathew Blacklock in division 3.
Julianne Moore, Abby Bushell, Emma Levins and Claire Hall set a new Okanagan regional record in the division 7 girls 4 x 50m freestyle relay, swimming it in 1:58.94.
Related: Sockeyes swim club makes waves at Revelstoke meet
The team has been training hard all season and it showed this weekend with many best times and great results from the Salmon Arm Sockeyes.
This stellar performance at regionals comes in the wake of the Sockeyes’ 2018 Invitational meet in Salmon Arm, where they placed first overall, and the Kelowna Swim Meet where the Sockeyes earned aggregate gold rankings in five divisions.
Recognition must go to the great coaching by Jordyn Konrad, Erin Miller and Bree Cooper who have worked so hard with all the Sockeyes to ensure that everyone, from the super-fast to the first-time swimmer, had a great summer.
Submitted by Darcy Calkins
@Jodi_Brak117
jodi.brak@saobserver.net
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