Although it was not a weekend for point-scoring for the Waveriders, it was one of personal bests and a chance to race against swimmers who are already qualified to go to Age Group Nationals.
It was also the first chance for coach Jerrit Brink to bring a team and Garnett Currie to have a teammate.
“It was amazing; it was really good,” Brink said.
“Natasha (Hanson) had a few events where we were looking at where she was at and she definitely got there.”
Hanson, 13, started out the weekend with a great PB taking 24 seconds off in her 800 m freestyle, which she just swam in Kelowna two weeks ago. She also improved her time in her 400 Free and in all her races was within the top 34 overall.
Now, Hanson has her eyes on meeting AAA times again, as she ages up a week before the long course AAAs and thus has to meet a faster time.
It will be a challenge for Hanson, but it’s one she is used to.
“You learn to cope with it,” she said.
Garnet Currie, 13, got to the finals for his 400 IM, taking off seven seconds from his previous time. He came in 16th in that race, and he also made two great personal bests in 100 Fly and 400 Free. He picked up another AAA time in his 400 Free for that, which brings his total qualified swims to nine.
“It was awesome,” Currie said.
The Waveriders are really looking forward to heading to Williams Lake in less than two weeks and sending their biggest team ever to compete! After that, they will be ready to move on to the second half of the season for Long Course!
While the team is lookin forward to long course, it poses difficulties for the team.
“Every meet we go to now is long course which is good.,” he said.
“We don’t have a 50 m pool so we can’t train in that 50 m season as long, it’s just that all the meets we go to are 50 m. So the more meets we have before the AAAs in Victoria the better.”