2009 Age Group Nationals

Canada’s Age Group National Championships ran for six days in Montreal this past week; there were five days at the long course (50m) pool, and open water concluded the meet today. It was a huge event – 1500+ swimmers and 200+ teams from across the country. Preliminaries took place in two pools; ten swimmers proceeded to finals in each event. Girls’ age groups for finals were 12 & under, 13, 14, 15 and 16-18, while boys competed as 13 & under, 14, 15, 16 and 17-18.

Our own UVPCS team consisted of swimmers Salin Bol, Sophia Borchers, Hanna Carter, Emily Ding, Caileigh Filmer, Katelyn Hayward, Ryan Howe, Evan Letkeman, Ian Mattock, Lauren McMillan, Victoria Mock, Rosie Moulton, Rachael Newman, Zac Parkes, Stefanie Schmidt, and Aidan Thirkell with coaches Rod Barratt and Mark Lancaster.

Our finalists in the pool included medalists-
Caileigh Filmer (12 & under, Silver 1500 Freestyle & Bronze 400 Freestyle),
Stefanie Schmidt (14, Bronze 1500 Freestyle)
Aidan Thirkell (14, Silver 50 Breaststroke)
Zac Parkes (15, Bronze 50 Freestyle) and
Nicholas Sinclair (17-18, Gold 200 Backstroke & Bronze 100 Backstroke)

...with further top-10 finishes by Salin Bol (13), Ryan Howe (13) and and Rachael Newman (15).

Over the 5 km open water event, Caileigh Filmer (12 & under) won Gold, Stefanie Schmidt (14) picked up Bronze and Evan Letkeman (14) placed seventh in their respective age categories.

In the process, the team set several new UVPCS LC records...
Caileigh Filmer (11-12) 1500 Freestyle
Lauren McMillan (13-14) 50 Breaststroke, and then...
Rosie Moulton (13-14) 50 Breaststroke, and then...
Sophia Borchers (13-14) 50 Breaststroke!
Aidan Thirkell (13-14) 50 Breaststroke (twice- first in prelims, then in finals)
Zac Parkes (15-17) 50 Freestyle (...twice- first in prelims, then in finals)
Nicholas Sinclair (15-17) 200 IM

Finally, congratulations to Aidan Thirkell, with a new Western qualifying standard.

Congratulations to all our swimmers and their coaches on fast swimming and their achievements in both pool and open water! ... complete results are available, as always, on our results page.