2010 Summer National Championships – Five Named to Pan Pacs Teams

Six rookies and four veterans represented UVPCS at Canada`s Summer National Championships held in Victoria this past week. The team, represented by swimmers Salin Bol (14), Derek Doerksen (21), MacKenzie Downing (23), Ian Mattock (19), Rachael Newman (16), Zac Parkes (16), Stefanie Schmidt (15), Nicholas Sinclair (18), Richard Weinberger (20) and Allison Wood (19) as well as coaches Ron Jacks, Peter Vizsolyi and Rod Barratt returned with one medal, four A-final (top-8) and four B-final (top-16) performances. Their efforts also generated 1 Rookie of the Meet award (Stefanie Schmidt); 3 athletes (MacKenzie Downing, Nicholas Sinclair, Richard Weinberger) and 1 coach (Ron Jacks) being named to the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships Team that will compete in Irvine, California, August 18-22, 2010; and finally, one athlete (Zac Parkes) being named to the Junior Pan Pacific Championships team to compete in Maui, Hawaii, August 26-30, 2010.

MacKenzie Downing led the group with a Silver medal performance in the 200 Butterfly, a 7th place finish in the 100 Butterfly, and a 4th place finish in the 400 Freestyle B-final. In the process, she also set a new club record in the 100 Freestyle. See MacKenzie`s post-swim interview here on Youtube. MacKenzie`s performance at the Summer National Championships builds on recent successes enjoyed at two International Meets held in June and July: 4th and 5th place finishes in the 200 and 100 Butterfly at the Santa Clara Invitational (Santa Clara, California, June 17-20, 2010) and 4th and 11th place finishes in the 200 and 100 Butterfly events at the 2010 Los Angeles Grand Prix (LA, California, July 8-11, 2010).

Nick Sinclair competed in two events at Canada`s Summer National Championships – the 100 and 200 Backstroke – and achieved a 4th place finish in the 200 Backstroke along with a 6th place finish in the 100 Backstroke B-final.

UVPCS was well-represented in the Backstroke events with Derek Doerksen also making it to the B-final in the 200m event, finishing in 6th place.

Zac Parkes, competing in his first Senior National Championships, broke Club records in both the 400m and 1500m Freestyle events and also achieved a 4th place finish in the 10K Open Water event (held at Thetis Lake on Sunday, August 1, 2010). The latter performance earned him a ticket to represent Canada at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships Team to compete in Maui, Hawaii later this month. UVPCS is well-represented on the National Open Water team with teammate Richard Weinberger set to compete for Canada at the Senior Pan Pacific Open Water Championships to be held in California later this month.

Stefanie Schmidt, also competing in her first Senior National Championships Meet, succeeded in making her way to a B-final, finishing it in 8th place. Stefanie’s performance earned her the Rookie of the Meet award, a remarkable achievement in view of the fact that over 600 of Canada’s top International and National swimmers were in attendance.

A number of Club relay records also fell over the course of the meet:

Salin Bol, MacKenzie Downing, Allison Wood and Rosie Moulton set a new Open Age Group record in the 400 Freestyle Relay; and

Allison Wood, Lauren McMillan, MacKenzie Downing and Salin Bol set a new Open Age Group Club record in the 400 Medley Relay replacing a record previously set in 2000 by Commonwealth and Olympic Games and World Championships athletes Danielle Bell, Christin Petelski, Kellie Rolston and Karley Stutzel.

Congratulations all! Complete results are available, as always, on our results page.

Finally, last but not least, thank you to everyone who helped make the 2010 Summer Nationals such a great meet, including over 200 officials and other volunteers from UVPCS and elsewhere across BC and across Canada, SCP and SNC staff, our sponsors, friends and supporters. Special thanks to Organizing Committee members: Rod Barratt, Moyra Brackley, Barb McKee, Mark Lancaster, Susan and Jim Mattock, Meghan Nishi, Lori Nolt, Terri Parkes, Marc Servais, Brian Sinclair, Marion and Tim Smith, David Tesch and Peter Vizsolyi and their fantastic crews.