2015-2016

*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.

*story by Lia Lancaster

The fourth finals session of the meet started off well enough, with a solid swim by Hanna Edwards in the 100 back, who moved up one spot and came in 6^th with a time of 1:08.77. Lauren Crisp also had a good performance in her 100 back, and came in 5^th with 1:04.07.

*Story by Lia Lancaster 

Day three at the smokin’ hot Talisman Centre, and PCS swimmers-despite altitude and heat- did not disappoint.  The first finals swimmer was 16 year old Sophie Tarrant, who recently competed at New Zealand’s Olympic Trials, and swam the 100 breastroke with a speedy 1:14.33, came in 6^th in the 16-18 year old category.

When reporting on Steph's win yesterday, I failed to realize the historical aspect of her result.  As the first ever Canadian Woman to win a World Cup event, hopefully Steph will pave the way and inspire other Canadians to strive for excellence in Open Water events.  There is a great history of Open Water Swimming in Canada, and this could be a stepping stone towards years of success for Canadians in the sport.

Day 2 of Age Group Nationals presented success as 
well as frustration with Relay disqualifications as PCS 
continues to fight hard in Calgary.

Jessica Luo started things off right for PCS by winning 
the 100 Freestyle for 14 year olds in a Best Time of 58.18.

Three Bronze Medal performances followed, as Hana 
Edwards fought her way up from 8th to grab the Bronze 
in the 13 year olds 400 IM in a time of 5:19.55, Jordan 

After the completion of the Men's event, PCS coached Stephanie Horner and Vicky Mock set off to compete in the frigid waters of Lac St. Jean.  Stephanie Horner finished the race in 1st place, her best ever result at a major international Open Water competition.  Way to go Stephanie!  Steph will now head to Rio for the Olympic event, and will definitely have some extra confidence after this result.

Eric Hedlin today competed at the FINA 10km Open Water World Cup race in Lac St. Jean, Quebec.  Eric placed in 4th overall and second Canadian, as Phillippe Guertin won the race.  Former PCS swimmer and Olympic Medallist Richard Weinberger finished behind Eric in 5th place.  

PCS created a fair bit of buzz on the first day at Age Group Nationals in Calgary, landing one new VIR Record, two Gold medals, two Bronze medals and few more finals swims.  At the end of the day, the team is ranked 7th place overall and second of the BC clubs, with the girls team sitting at 5th and the boys at 13th.  We will be looking to move up the rankings in the coming days.

Vicky Mock competed for Canada at the 2016 FINA World Junior Open Water Championships from July 16-18 in Hoorn, Netherlands.

Competing in the 18-19 year old's 10km race on July 17, Vicky came in for a drink on the first lap as planned.  However, Vicky had mis-judged her placement within the pack as she approached the feeding dock, and subsequently lost the leading pack of swimmers.  She would finish 21st overall and second Canadian.