Revelstoke knocks off Kootenay teams as summer swim season opens
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
Revelstoke flexed its Okanagan muscles to capture the opening meet of the Kootenay Summer Swim Association season Sunday in Nelson.
The squad from abroad garnered 605.5 points to claim the overall title as the Kootenay season kicked off at the Nelson and District Community Complex Pool.
“We had some exceptional swims from almost all of our senior swimmers and many outstanding best times from all our swimmers,” Neptune head coach Michelle Lorusso said after watching the host club finish fifth behind Revelstoke in the team standings.
“It was a kind of a surprise when Revelstoke won the meet since they are not even from our region, but they did bring a lot of swimmers,” Lorusso added.
Trail Stingrays finished second behind Revelstoke with 506 points. Castlegar was third at 413 with Grand Forks fourth at 390.5.
Nelson was next followed by Colville, Wash., Kimberley and Creston.
The medals were far and few between for the Neptunes, winning just seven. Leading the assault was Samuel Matthew in division three boys with gold.
Kourtney Bragger won silver in division three girls with Neptune assistant coach Melissa Afford finishing in a tie for silver in division seven girls.
Jakob Bragger won bronze in division one girls.
Assistant coaches Kiandra McLaren and Rebecca Afford won bronze in division six and seven girls, respectively.
In summer swim numbers, combined with solid swims, is usually the key to low and high placings.
“We placed fifth overall which was pretty good considering we had lots of disqualifications, only 37 swimmers at the meet,” Lorusso confessed. “(Plus) a few of our key swimmers now do winter swim.”
The winter swim excludes those swimmers from the summer program. Which means the silver medal won by Niallan Collier doesn’t contribute to the Neptune totals.
The Kootenay season shifts to Grand Forks Saturday for a B meet.
The next major event is set for Trail June 18-19.
The Kootenay Regional meet goes August 6-7 in Castlegar with the top swimmers advancing to the B.C. Speed Swim Championships August 15-21 in Richmond.
New Meet Records:
Two Neptune rookies may just be the building block Neptune coach Michelle Lorusso needs to rebuild the Heritage City team.
Aubree Fillion set a new record in the under-six 25-meter backstroke, shaving almost two seconds off the old mark.
Fillion set a new time of 45.86. The old time was 47.35.
Jaylen Rushton, swimming in the same division, shattered the old mark in the 25-meter butterfly. The – old record was 41.15 with the new time now 29.20.
Niallan Collier, competing in the “O” category two boys set a new time in the 200 meter individual medley of 2:19.56. The old time was 2:23.07.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
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