The grins on the young swimmers faces tell the story better than any picture or paragraph could after a successful swim meet the Waveriders had been looking forward to.
“I’ve been waiting two months for this swim meet,”swimmer Sonny Cervienka said.
The meet lived up to expectations as the swimmers sloughed off time at the Prince George swim meet last weekend.
“The kids started this year already so sharp. I knew they were going to do well and take off some time, but they took off so much,” coach Jeritt Brink said.
“It was awesome to watch.”
Brink had suspected that after only two months of training, the swimmers still had some cobwebs clinging from a sedentary summer.
He was, however, wrong, as every one of his swimmers cut off great swaths of time from their swims, including Garnet Currie who slashed his 400 Individual Medley time by 11 seconds.
Brad Swyers summed up his jump in performance saying, “it makes it look like I wasn’t doing anything last year.”
It’s Brink’s third year with the Waveriders and he’s seeing some dividends now from his training. Swimming is more than just conditioning and it’s the little technical details he’s been trying to impart to the young swimmers. And those details are where a lot of the Waveriders got their time.
“I’m just happy with the way their racing,” he said.
“They’re not going out and throwing their arms around like little monkeys. They’re trying to control their swimming and they’re doing their turns and they’re understanding pushing off the wall. It was a good technical meet.”
After the successful start, every swimmer old enough has some sort of A time in sight, hoping to take on some of the best young swimmers in the province.
Currie, 13, went on to one third place finish, three second place finishes and three first place finishes, garnering him the silver medal overall for 12-13 year-old boys. In the process, Currie also made his AAA times for the 200m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke and 400m IM.
While happy with his times, Currie is still looking for improvements in the little details of his swimming to get a few more AAA times.
Natasha Hanson, 13, cut down her times as well, earning a third place finish as well as a pair of second place finishes in three of her races, but never dropped out of the top tens in any of her races. Hanson also managed to net AA times in 200m Freestyle, 200m IM, 100m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke.
“I started out way further ahead then I ended my last season,” she said.
Hanson also just fell short of an A time in the 50m Front, spurred on by her younger team mate in the same race, Emerie Watson, 12, who was just seconds off the A time as well.
Watson also took a AA time for 13 year-olds in 50m Free.
The relay teams also finished in impressive positions, with the girls 10 and under finishing second in the province in the 200m Free close after the Prince George team, which had the team cheering loudly.
In the 200m Medley, the 10 and under girls team finished third, which the boy’s matched. The boy’s 11-12 team finished fourth in the same category.
In the 200m Free, the boys 10 and under finished in second, while the older, 11-12 year-old boys finished fourth again.
Billy Swyers, 10, finished top six in all his events garnering a first and second place finish, as well as an 11 year-old A standard in the 50m Free and 100m Backstroke.
Cervienka, 16, also made his A time in 100m Breaststroke and 50m Free along with a trio of top 10 finishes.
Ryley O’Hara, 11, also took a podium position, finishing third in 100 IM along with taking a handful of top 10 finishes.
The team also brought along a couple first timers, including 11 year-old Logan Godsoe and 5 year-old Braden Novak.
Despite his inexperience at meets, Godsoe took home to bronze-medal finishes, along with some solid top ten finishes.
Novak finished his sole, 25m Fly in sixth.
“The head meet manage came up to him after and asked, ‘are you seriously only five years-old.’ It was the cutest thing ever,” Brink said.
Boroka Peter, 6, also competed with the team, finishing top 20 in all of her races.
Next up for the Waveriders is the Williams Lake Bluefins mini-meet and the Kamloops meet in December.
The team would also like to wish their coach, Jerrit Brink a happy birthday.