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Day 5 Age Group Nationals
*story by Lia Lancaster
The last night at Talisman Centre was definitely not boring.
The team’s first gold medal of the night went to Sophie Lorette in the girls 400 freestyle. Lorette was out a bodylength ahead of everyone at the 100 meter mark, with a starting split of 1.04.36, and kept a strong pace throughout the whole race and brought it home in the last 100, and with a final time of 4.35.25, put herself on top of the podium.
A couple heats later, Erin Jennings and Kelsey Andrusak raced side by side in matching pink suits. The girls had a very strong start, Jennings out in a 1:04.07, Andrusak one tenth behind her with a 1:04.17. Jennings finished with a total time of 4:35.41, coming in 5th, and Andrusak came into the wall stopping the clock at 4:39.59, placing 7th.
In the boys 400, PCS had Anthony Gutierrez to cheer for in his 13 and Under category. Gutierrez started out fast, challenging lane 4 and going a solid 1:01.10 first 100, leading by just under a second. Every length was a new battle, as the swimmer in lane four was hard to shake, but by the 300, they were neck and neck, within 0.01 seconds of each other! The last 100 meters was a whirlwind, and at the touch, Gutierrez came second by what seemed like a couple inches. Adding a silver medal to his pile, Gutierrez still had the open water race on Monday, stay tuned for results and stories from that!
The end of finals brought the 4x100 Medley relays. The boys kicked off their last relay of the season with a great performance. Brendan Fitzpatrick started off with the backstroke, giving his team a very good start in second place position, up next was Michael Schmidt in his best stroke, the breastroke, and with a quick stroke rate and some powerful kick, he brings his team closer to the leading team and touches the wall to start off Keir Ogilvie. Doing butterfly, Ogilvie bypasses the first place team in the first 10 meters, giving Anthony Gutierrez an awesome lead of over 5 seconds. He keeps the lead and gains another two seconds or so, helping his team win yet another gold medal, to be presented to them on the top of the podium with matching cowboy hats.
The girls 13-14 relay also had a great race. Hana Edwards started off with a nice solid swim in the backstroke, touching the wall to start the breastroker. Laura Rincon’s fast stroke rate kept the team in a good position for Sophie Lorette, doing the butterfly. Lorette finished her leg with a nice smooth stroke for Grace Macdonald, who dove in and fought a five way battle for a podium spot, with four teams finishing within one second PCS finished an exciting 3rd place finish.
Other finalists included Hana Edwards in the 200 IM, going a 2.31.15 and coming in 4th; Jessica Luo in the 50 fly, moving up a place with a 29.27. Also in the 50 fly, Keir Ogilvie took 5th place with a 27.91. Erin Lawrance celebrating her Birthday and finishing 4th in the 400 free, 4:27.76.
4x100 Medley relay: Lauren Crisp, Sophie Tarrant, Jessie Luo, Allison Ballantyne, coming in 6th.
