First-time jitters were not a factor for a Foothills Stingray debutant at the premier junior national swim meet in Canada.
Twelve-year-old Layne Guidinger earned a pair of sixth-place finishes in her first dip into the pool at the Canadian Age Group Championships, July 25 to 29 at the Talisman Centre in Calgary. She notched a western national swim time of 2:51 in the 200m breaststroke, edging the 2:52 time standard by one second to qualify for the Western National meet, February in Saskatoon. An impressive feat for a time standard earmarked for swimmers aged up to 15.
“After it (coach Todd Melton) said you’re going to Saskatoon,” Guidinger said. “ I thought it was a 2:49, but it was a 2:52. I was really happy.”
The High River resident came into the 200m final in seventh place after the preliminaries, but finished ahead of her qualifying time at sixth overall.
Stingrays head coach Todd Melton said Guidinger got better as the 200m race progressed.
“Layne’s tail end of her races are always good and on the last leg she was catching girls,” Melton said. “It was very exciting.”
Guidinger also swam to a final and a sixth place finish in the arduous 1,500m freestyle, but was five seconds off her personal best in the mammoth swim.
“Her time was similar than at the provincial meet two weeks ago, but it was still a great placing at this kind of meet,” Melton said.
Eleven-year-old Okotokian Finlay Knox was one of just three swimmers his age to qualify in the 1,600-person meet. Knox earned personal best swims in two events. He shredded two seconds off his 200m butterfly and took three seconds off his best ever swim in the 200m freestyle.
The talented Stingray said a change in strategy away from energy conservation in the 200m butterfly, at the behest of Stingrays coach Thomas South, buoyed his efforts in Calgary.
“My coach wanted me to go really hard and see what happens and I certainly did, but I kept my stroke,” Knox said. “If I would have done my normal strategy, not going out so fast, then I wouldn’t have got my best time.”
However, swimming against opponents up to two years older than him offered its own challenges for the Okotokian.
“It was fun because I got to race a lot faster people, I got to challenge myself more,” Knox said. “I just wanted to do my best and not put too much pressure on myself.”
The strain of the national swim meet is old hat to veteran Stingray Christyna Dashko. The 16-year-old Okotoks native said her third time at Age Group Championships was the charm.
“This has definitely been my best one ever,” she said. “I worked harder than I did before in practice, I started working really hard and the times definitely showed it at this meet.”
The statistics back up the statement.
Dashko went five-for-five in personal bests in Calgary, attaining new heights in the 50m backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly as well as the 200m and 100m breaststroke.
Dashko said the latter was her best swim of the meet.
“I took off two seconds from my best time,” Dashko said of her 100m swim. “I got ahead of everyone off the dive and went out fast and it felt easy so I was able to comeback faster than I ever have.”
Elsewhere Okotokian Cole Midtdal earned his Western National time in the 50m freestyle by swimming to a 29.51 run as the leadoff swimmer in the 4x100m relay.
Stingray Carly Ede finished eighth overall in her specialty swim, the 50m backstroke, and Emilia Hesterman finished 12th overall in the 50m breaststroke.
“We’re just happy with all of the kids, for a lot of them it was their first go around,” Melton said. “And they were fine.
“We wanted kids to experience this kind of atmosphere, this is exciting, it gets you going.”
For full results from the meet go to www.swimming.ca and for more information on the Foothills Stingrays visit ww.foothillstingrays.com.
