AAA's Day 2 Recap

The Pacific Coast Swimming contingent at the BC AAA Short Course Championships continued their roll on day two of competition.  In total, the Bolts captured twelve individual medals and five relay medals out at Saanich Commonwealth Place on Friday night. 

The second night of finals began with Jessica Luo swimming a lifetime best in the Girls 12-13 200 IM, on her way to a silver medal.  Luo recently qualified for the Canadian Olympic Trials with her swims at the Speedo Western Canadian Championships, and her momentum has carried through the first two days at the Provincial Championships. 

In the Girls 16-18 200 IM, Jordan Andrusak and Haley Bennett finished 4^th and 7^th respectively.  On the boy’s side, Michael Schmidt swam to a best time by over four seconds, and earned himself a silver medal in the process with his final’s time of 2:18.59.  Mathew Fuller touched the wall in seventh in the Boys 16-18 200 IM. 

Thirteen-year-old Hana Edwards captured a silver medal in the Girls 12-13 100 Back, while Sophie Lorette and Jessica Luo placed 5^th and 7^th respectively.  In the Girls 14-15 100 Back, Hannah Lorette touched the wall in 4^th, with a personal best of 1:04.57.  Molly Gowans and Lauren Crisp went one-two in the Girls 16-18 100 Back, in a tight race coming down to the wire.  Gowans got her hand on the wall in a time of 1:01.46, a new club record that Crisp formerly held.  Crisp touched the wall in 1:01.89. 

Jessica Luo struck gold in the Girls 13-14 200 Fly, as she blew away the field with her time of 2:18.79, setting a new Pacific Coast Swimming record in the process.  Sophie Lorette was close behind with her 4^th place finish in 2:22.97, while Grace MacDonald placed 8^th and scored important team points.  In the Girls 16-18 200 Fly, Erin Lawrance and Molly Gowans placed 4^th and 5^th respectively. 

In the Boys 12-13 200 Fly, Keir Ogilvie earned himself a silver medal in a time of 2:22.42, while Artem Kuklev came 6^th in the Boys 14-15 200 Fly.  Lucas Tyler held on over the final 50 meters of the Boys 16-18 200 Fly to earn himself a gold medal. Justin Howe touched the wall in 7^th place in a time of 2:08.70.

Sophie Lorette led the whole way to win gold in the Girls 12-13 400 Free in a time of 4:30.50.  Her finals result was a best time by seven seconds from her weekend entry time.  In the Girls 16-18 400 Free, PCS once again found multiple athletes on the podium, with Molly Gowans winning gold in 4:09.37, and Erin Lawrance claiming bronze with a time of 4:17.22.  Gowans broke her own club record set two weeks ago at the Speedo Western Canadian Championships by two seconds, and narrowly missed the Vancouver Island Regional record in the process.

Thirteen-year-old Anthony Gutierrez won the Boys 12-13 400 Free final by a whopping six seconds, in a time of 4:20.66.  Gutierrez pushed the pace early on, and swam the last two hundred meters clear of competition to capture his second medal of the weekend.  Mathew Fuller placed 5^th in the Boys 16-18 400 Free with his time of 4:02.28.

On the relay side, Pacific Coast Swimming once again showed their depth with five relays finding themselves on the podium at the end of the night.  The Girls 12 & Under 200 Free team of Lily Chen, Anastasia Trudel, Bijou Speirs and Trinity Aragon-Scrivens eclipsed the two-minute mark on their way to a silver medal performance.  Dylan Kormendy, Brendan Fitzpatrick, Taiki Hiraoka and Nathan Chow also claimed silver medals, as they swam to a 1:59.19 in the Boys 12 & Under 200 Free Relay. 

The Bolts’ Girls 13-14 200 Free Relay composed of Kelsey Andrusak, Grace MacDonald, Hannah Lorette and Jessica Luo won their second relay of the weekend, as they out touched their rivals from Hyack by five tenths of a second.  The team of Miyu Dobashi, Anthony Gutierrez, Michael Schmidt and Artem Kuklev captured a silver medal in a new Pacific Coast Swimming club record time of 1:44.42. 

The team of Rachel Sawchuk, Allison Ballantyne, Erin Lawrance and Molly Gowans claimed a silver medal in the Girls 16-18 200 Free Relay.  The top three teams in the race finished within three tenths of a second of each other, making for some exciting swimming to finish off the second night of competition. 

After two days of swimming, Pacific Coast Swimming sits deadlocked for first with Hyack Swim Club of New Westminster.  Day three events include 100 Free, 200 Back, 50 Fly, 100 Breast and 400 IM.