The Shuswap Swimming Team decided to try a unique swim meet to end the season with this year, and it was offered to all platinum and provincially or nationally qualified swimmers. The meet took place in Moses Lake, Wash. in an outdoor, eight- lane, 50-metre pool located inside a water park. In the end, only one swimmer from the team, Jessie Baird, was brave enough to pave the way to this opportunity for the rest of the team.
More than 300 swimmers from around B.C., all over Washington State, and from Utah took part.
The hospitality was great, with free camping in the park where the pool was located, a free outdoor movie in the park amphitheatre on the first night of the meet, a farmer’s market in the park on Saturday morning, VIP passes to the water park after the meet on Saturday, and more.
For Jessie Baird, 14, this was her first meet in an outdoor pool, and she had a great meet and learned how to deal with the elements along the way. Baird’s best result came in the 13- to 14-year-old girls 400-m freestyle race where she placed fifth.
Over this past season, more than a hundred team records were broken, there were more provincial qualifiers than ever before, and, for the first time, a team swimmer qualified to race at the Canadian national level competitions.
The 2011-12 swimming season will be starting up again in September after the annual maintenance closure of the pool.