Trio of medals for Vial
Wolfville Triton swimmers finish the season in top form
Thirteen Wolfville Triton swimmers competed at the provincial championships and brought the season to an end with best times from all athletes.
This was a long competition, requiring the swimmers to be on top of their game for five days, said head coach Moira Milward, which is the longest competition for most of them. Competing in this sort of event has unique requirements, she said, with the swimmer needing to keep focused and get enough rest to recover from one day to the next.
“With the adrenalin involved in competition and the length of competition it is easy to become overtired and begin to lag, but well done to all the athletes as they managed well,” Milward said.
The youngest swimmers of the group were 12-year-olds Eliza Stokesbury-price and Simon Dornieden. Both swimmers advanced to finals and took on challenging events that showed the older swimmers that they were not to be overlooked. Dornieden took a staggering 26 seconds off his 800 metre time and Stokesbury-price, after swimming the final of the event, had taken more than 30 seconds off her 400 individual medley time.
Eliese Groeneveld, swimming as a 13-year-old, may have been somewhat surprised by her performances as she bettered her times in every event at every attempt, Milward said. Her best event was the 50m breaststroke, where she started the final in sixth place and took the bronze medal.
Jenna Guy also swam with great results, performing her events with a relaxed manner and improving her times, said Milward.
Top performers at the championships were Bo Stokesbury-price, 15, who won the 400m freestyle and the 1k open water event, scoring 204 points for the Tritons. He will now travel to Winnipeg later this month for the Canadian Junior Nationals.
Ava Vial, 16, won the 50, 100 and 200 m breaststroke.
“These events brought good competition for Ava and showed her true grit when it comes to pressure,” Milward said. “Winning the 200 & 400 Individual Medley with no competition to push her
made it difficult to achieve to (the) standard required for her to accompany Bo to Winnipeg. Having just turned 16, she is competing for times that will take her through the next few years, so she will have plenty of opportunity to make those standards.”
Vial scored 280 points, making her the high points winner for the 16+ girls.
Others attending this competition were Oliver Cadrain, 18, Alexander
Glenn, 13, Gabriel Graves, 14, Maggie Graves, 13, Kayla Jarvis, 13, Marta Perezroca, 16, and Sean Vibert, 17.
“I am so proud of all the swimmers who attended the provincial championships,” said Milward. “While it is difficult for many to swim fast in the morning for the prelims, it becomes essential if they want to make finals. I ask them all to attempt to go for best times in every swim they enter, that is why we are there. There were 13 out-of-province teams at this meet, which is a great thing for our swimmers to get the better racing, but the pressure is on to get into the finals.”
The boys ended up in ninth place out of 21 teams while the girls’ team finished sixth overall.
“That is very satisfactory knowing how small our team was,” Milward said.
“We now look forward to next season and hope we go onward in the journey of improvement.”