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Day 6 Open Water

The last day of Age Group Nationals started with an early morning drive to the small lake.  It was pretty chilly, but the PCS swimmers braved the 19 degree water and gave it all they had.  In the first heat, the boys 2.25km, Michael Schmidt, Keir Ogilvie, Dylan Kormendy and Anthony Gutierrez all walked out to the rope together to start their race. After the first lap, Gutierrez was in the leading pack, and with two laps to go, was holding a good pace. The second lap for him was a bit more of a battle; the three boys in the leading pack fighting for first position, so there was a bit of scrambling overtop of one another around the turn buoys. However, at the finish gate, Gutierrez had a comfortable lead, and hit the gate first, with a time of 24:23.68, earning himself his second gold medal of the meet. The other three PCS swimmers in the heat also had great races, Ogilvie coming in 9th, followed by Schmidt in 11th and Kormendy in 12th.

 

    The last heat was the girls 5.25 km, and Erin Jennings was ready to race, despite having spotted what was described as “an absolutely massive fish” on the docks earlier. Fifteen year old Jennings was racing in the 15–17 year old age group. The girls had 7 laps of the lake to do, not an easy feat. Jennings was out strong from the start, and was leading the pack by more than 10 meters during the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th laps. On the seventh lap, after more than 50 minutes of being in the cold water and very limited vision, (due to glare and the fact that nobody has invented fog-proof goggles yet), another swimmer passed Jennings on the turn. The two stepped on the gas, and at the end gate, giving it all she had, Jennings touched second overall, with an awesome time of 59:13.28.  With the PCS team cheering her on, Jennings was rewarded with hugs, towels, pancakes and a silver medal to top it all off.

   

Upcoming PCS events:

 

Senior Nationals-Aug 4-7

Midsummer Madness-Aug 6-7

2016 Olympics start Aug 6-14

Season: