Remy Greer
Staff Reporter
The Foothills Stingrays Swim Club had a banner swim meet in Calgary and several of its members earned more than medals for their efforts.
The Stingrays walked away from the 2012 Age Group Provincial Championships, March 9-11 at the Talisman Centre in Calgary with 20 medals (three gold, seven silver, and 10 bronze) and boasting eight swimmers who earned spots on provincial select teams.
Fourteen-year-olds Carly Ede and Kirsten Marchak qualified for the prospects West team, giving the swimmers the opportunity to travel to Montreal on March 26 for six days of training camp and of watching the Olympic trials.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Ede said of qualifying for the team. “As soon as I found out about the camp I knew I really wanted to go so I wrote a list of everything I could possibly do and I just had to believe in myself.”
The prospects team features a specialist in every stroke, with Ede making the team for her backstroking exploits and Marchak earning her spot on the squad as a butterfly swimmer.
“We’re going to a training camp,” Ede said. “I think it’s going to be mostly technique, not really hard-core training and we’re going to watch finals every night so we’ll be there to watch Kirstie (Foothills Stingray Parapan Am Games gold medalist Kirstie Kasko),”
Ede, a member of the Stingrays for a year plus after moving to the foothills from Ontario, notched a silver medal in the 50m backstroke and a bronze in the 100m individual medley at the provincials while Marchak swam top her personal best in the 200m butterfly and earned her western time in the 100m butterfly.
Marchak qualified for the prospects team after earning a first-place finish in her age group in both the 200 and 100m butterfly. The John Paul II Collegiate student said she’s looking forward to every aspect of the jaunt to Montreal.
“Just to meet new people and get other perspectives on my strokes and improve on my butterfly,” said Marchak, who added getting an opportunity to witness the Olympic trials first hand will be inspirational.
The Stingrays pair weren’t the only ones on the team rewarded for swimming away from the pack. Six Stingray swimmers, under the direction of Stingrays coach Thomas South, in the 12 and under age bracket qualified for the North-South selects.
“You have to finish with the fastest swim in an individual event in order to make it,” South said of the criteria for selection. “They take 16 boys and 16 girls from the Southern Alberta region and they swim against the top 32 from the Northern region (above Red Deer).”
Stingrays Layne Guidinger, Finlay Knox, Justin Lisoway, Miranda Kasko, Chyanne Simpson and Michael McMahon will be swimming for the South against the elite swimmers representing the North of the Wild Rose province at the competitive meet in Edmonton in May, preceded by a week of training camp.
The 12-year-old Guidinger etched her spot on the South team by swimming to the best time among Southern Alberta competitors in her bracket. The qualification was just one of many accomplishments garnered by Guidinger at the Talisman Centre.
“She made two national qualifying times, in different strokes,” said South. “In different disciplines she won three medals and also qualified for North-South.”
Guidinger’s times of 2:54.66 in the 200m breaststroke and 19:32.02 in the 1,500m freestyle met the national standards. The High River resident said she came close to the top of the podium in the 200m swim, ending up with a silver medal.
“I went into the finals in third and at the end of finals I got second and I was two seconds away from getting first,” Guidinger said. “I took off four seconds from the morning (swim).”
She reached the national benchmark in just her second ever swim in the 1,500m freestyle at a competitive event, earning a bronze medal at the provincials and added a second bronze in the 50m breaststroke.
Elsewhere, talented 11 year-olds Finlay Knox and Justin Lisoway added to their treasure chest of medals, as each swimmer produced five podium finishes at provincials. Knox won gold medals in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley and silver medals in the 400m individual medley, 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle lead. Lisoway finished at the top of the heap in the 100m individual medley, second in the 50m butterfly and third in the 100m freestyle, backstroke, butterfly events.
Ten-year-old Alycia Weber made her first appearance at the provincials count walking away with a silver medal in the 200m backstroke and a bronze in the 100m backstroke. Blaise Evelyn won two bronze medals for swims in the 50 and 200m breaststroke.
“It was a really good meet, they all stepped it up,” South said.
For more information on the Stingrays go the club’s website at www.foothillsstingrays.com.
