PCS

Another weekend and another fantastic performance by the Silver Tide swimmers. Nadine was on fire with club records in the 200, 800 and 1500 free. Her 1500 was the fastest one ever done by a Silver Tide girl and in doing that she also achieved her first ever Senior National time by 10 seconds. For these efforts she was named one of 3 swimmers of the meet. Also setting a new club record was Karlyn with a fantastic 200 IM where she took control right from the start and did not look back. The 15 and over girls relay team of Rachelle, Julie, Sydney and Karlyn also broke the club record in the 200 FR and were well on there way in the MR as well if not for a little mix up. Other fantastic efforts from the weekend came from butterflier? Erin who decided she was more than a butterflier and achieved her first ever Western cuts in the 400 IM by taking off 20 seconds and her 800 free by taking off well over 30 seconds. These great efforts earned her swimmer of the meet as well. Our 3rd swimmer of the meet was Brendan Elford who achieved his first 13 year old A time in 200 fly and had a number of other great events on his way to a 100% best time weekend. It truly was a magical weekend. Sydney earned new Western times in the 200 and 400 IM. Julie, after signing off on backstroke decided that it ain't so bad with another big best time. Rachelle had a breakthrough in her 100 and 200 free getting her first best times in those events since this time last year. Sarah had a fantastic meet all around and breast stroke is finally her slowest stroke (time wise). Greg is finding new events and is seeing great success. Nicole continued to grow into a very well rounded swimmer with a great 400 IM and Free. And Brayden continued to inch closer and closer to his A time in a number of different freestyle events. Lots of best and great swims by everyone involved. Keep up the great work everyone.

The Magic of Saanich Commonwealth Place was a great thing to experience and many swimmers get to do it all over again in February.

Senior Meet recap

For some of the seniors this was their final meet heading into the Christmas break and they made the best of it. Seeing 73% best times with only a small break. This is just a glimpse of what they should be able to accomplish as we head into a Christmas camp that should have them ready to see results that they couldn't have even imagined by the end of short course season. Nathan took off time in his freestyle like only and age grouper should with huge drops and got his first best time in 100 back since the end of short course last year. Jenny showed some great improvements in her butterfly and got her first PB in 100 Breast of the season. Meagan continued with huge drops in 100 fly by dropping over 1 second again after just doing that at the last meet. Silken had a fantastic backstroke weekend dropping over 1 second in her 100 and 3 in her 200 and Delaney and Zac both qualified for senior champs this weekend too!

The rest of the group is gearing up for the PCS Christmas Cracker this weekend and we saw some great signs that things are falling into place nicely. Erin narrowly missed qualifying for Westerns in 2 events while getting her first best time in 100 fly since the Cracker last year. Nicole was on fire seeing big drops all across the board and making tons of finals and Nadine broke the club record in 800 free while negative splitting her race by over 5 seconds. And on Sunday Sydney was off the wall swimming lots of events very close together in finals and getting best times in every single one. Everyone saw results that should have them very excited about the up coming weekend. Everyone showed some great PRIDE even though they should have been quite fatigued heading into the weekend they did great jobs swimming much faster at night than in the morning. This preperation is fantastic and should have everyone pumped up for what they can accomplish in Victoria.

Plenty more records and best times should be on their way this weekend as we look to finish off the first third of the season in style before heading into a week and a half of testing and a week of R and R.

Thanx for reading

JP Fiset

Another swim meet and another successful weekend from the Silver Tide Swim Club. The meet ran very well with heats and finals for the 13 and overs making for a very challenging finals session for some and timed finals for the 12 and unders. Everyone really saw some very positive results.
To start off I would like to highlight the 5 club records broken at the meet which brings our annual total up to 7 club records. In the 11-12 year old boys 400 MR, 13-14 boys 400 MR, 13-14 girls 400 MR and 800 free, 15-17 girls 400 MR. These were just some of the fabulous swims this past weekend. Congratulations everyone!
As a team we finished 3rd place behind the host Olympian Swim Club and the perenial powerhouse Keyano Swim Club. With 46 swimmers in attendance we definitely made a presence. Including a clean sweep of the boys 13-14 year old relays! And 20 swimmers had 100% best times or only missed a PB in 1 event. We had new age group trials qualifiers in Halle Elford, Lauren V and Calvin Geddie and many other swimmers demonstrated that they are ready to make that jump shortly too like Brooklyn, Matt, Jasmin, Liam, Sierra, Melissa, and Hayley. Delaney and Zac also qualified for Senior Champs.
This has been a great first third of the year as some swimmers get ready to head off to Victoria or compete at 10 and under series and others continue to swim into the Christmas break.
Be sure to congratulate the new record holders if you haven't done so already.

Tuesday mornings

Just a reminder, Tuesday morning practices have been cancelled till the New Year with our reduced training load heading into the holiday break.

JP Fiset Invitational

I hope that you all had a wonderful time at the JP Fiset swim meet hosted by the Silver Tide oh, I mean Olympian swim club. Sorry, with all of our parents working so many shifts, in key positions too, I got a little confused with who hosted the meet this weekend. Thank you parents for stepping up. I am sure that I am not the only one that noticed. You did a great job, who knows maybe next year we'll host our own heats and finals meet. Thank you again for all of your work and support of swimming.

Something to think about

At Grand Prix this weekend we saw that Canadian swimming is coming along nicely. There were some very good results for this early in the season and there was a lot of depth shown on the womens side. The men however are still looking very average but you can see some young guns starting to make a move looking to break on to the national scene.
We saw a huge upset in the mens 1500 this weekend. National record holder (the only Canadian under 15:00 long course) added over 30 seconds and Frances Zuccaro took off 19 seconds to take the gold medal. With Canada looking to send a strong womens freestyle relay to the Olympics this summer the sprint freestyles were quite week showing that the door is wide open for a new young gun to step onto the scene. And freestyle as a whole along with IM were very average this weekend.

It will be interesting to see who steps up and takes these spots. It could be anyone!!

Bell Grand Prix Alberta results and national records

The Bell Grand Prix was hosted this past weekend at the Etobicoke Olympium and there were some very good results only 3 months into the season. The meet was held with short course preliminaries and long course finals to help the swimmers prepare for Olympic Trials. Alberta age groupers stood out Lori Kremer and Deanna Mathews of OSC broke a hand full of provincial records. Lori broke the 100 fly both short course and long course with a long course time of 1:03.17 and also broke the 200 fly both short course and long course with a long course time of 2:17.60. Deanna also broke the provincial record in the 200 back both short course and long course with a long course time of 2:16.93 good for 3rd place. And finally Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge broke her 50 and 100 m breast stroke records in the finals with long course times of 1:11.33 in the 100 and 33.16 in the 50 both long course.
Other great swims included 1 new national record. Elizabeth Wycliffe broke the 200 meter backstroke record short course with a 2:07.05 and had a fantastic 100 back with a time of 59.85.
For a full list of results check out http://www.swimming.ca/liveresults/BGP_TO_07/

5 KM pool chamionships

We had a great distance challenge Saturday November 17th and I am looking forward to seeing how everyone stacked up against the rest of the country in the 5 KM championships. There are many challenges when taking on an event such as a 5KM swim or any distance swim that you have not done many times before. Everyone did very well and at the same time many left saying that they could have done better. That is a great attitude, it demonstrates a lot of pride and a desire to succeed. That attitude can take you a long way. This goes the same for all those who completed at 3 KM swim or a 1500. All of you did very well.

Stay posted for links to the results so that you can see where you stacked up compared to the rest of the kids in your age group.

Congrats!

Poppy

In 2007 the Poppy was back at Kinsmen with 496 swimmers but not without it's fair share of controversy. 8 lanes, 16 lanes, no lanes. And all because some little swimmer said "the sky is falling, the sky is falling". None the less everyone, from swimmers, parents and coaches responded with nothing but their best and we had some wonderful successes from top to bottom. And it all went off without a hitch, thank you to everyone, it could not have happened without you. The coaches and the 56 Silver Tide swimmers who competed are very grateful as to how well it went.

By now you have already seen the great results that we put up with all of the medals, aggregates and 66% best times. Olivia A and Sarah L achieved their Age Group Trials standards and we had many more swimmers come ever so close to achieving new Age Group Trials, Age Group Champs and Senior Champs qualifying times. There will be plenty of new qualifiers shortly. Also, a big highlight was to see: Jaeden and Liam S, Sarah L, Caylee K, Caleb J, Matthew W, Shelby B and Megan W compete for the first meet in the Silver Tide colors. Seeing such a big group of swimmers from all levels see so much success made the long days well worth while. And to see 56 swimmers decked out in their new Silver Tide tracksuits or other apparel all at the same time was a beautiful thing to see.

More than the great results the thing that I thought was even more special was to see everyone in the club interact with some of the swimmers that they do not get to train with on a regular basis. It is such a bonus to see the senior swimmers interacting with and setting an example for the young up and coming swimmers. It makes the team so much stronger. The tide is high and still climbing. This great start has the makings of a very successful season.

Next up for the Tide is the 5 KM pool championships and then we will be sending another huge group of 50 swimmers to JP Fiset. Should be a great time.

Thanks for reading!

5KM pool championships

This Saturday we are having the 5km pool championships and I feel that a number of you can do very well in this competition. If you prepare for it like you would any other race the results may surprise you. Thank you in advance to all parents who are able to help out with counting and officiating.

All of the results will be posted on the swim Canada website and you will be able to see where you stand across the nation. Doing well here is a big step towards being a strong contender on both the provincial and national swim scene.

Good Luck!

Some Halloween fun that many missed out on!!!

We have great kids!

Here is an e-mail that I just received and I had a number of other great comments from the host billet families all weekend:
Hello, my name is Corrinne Eagle. I am the parent of a swimmer in the Goldfins. This past weekend we had the pleasure of having 5 billets stay in our home. Two of those billets were swimmers from your club, Erin McDermott, and Silken Janzen. I would just like to say that it was a pleasure to have them in our home. They were respectful, polite and very friendly to the entire family, even our 7 year old son who never gave them a moments peace! Could you pass this along to their coaches and parents. We would be happy to have them in our home any time.
Sincerely,
The Eagle Family

Videos

We video taped a number of great races at the swim meet this past weekend. If anyone would like a copy of the races simply bring me a blank CD with your swimmers name on it and you will receive a copy of all the great final races and any preliminary swims that the swimmers asked to be taped in.

Saskatoon

We are back from a long and successful meet. The swimmers turned some heads with some fast swims, best times and some new qualifying standards very early in the swim season.

I would like to start by congratulating Robyn for achieving her QT in the 400 free by a huge margin by taking off over 30 seconds. Along with a number of other fantastic swims. This could be a break out year for this budding swimmer. Other swimmers with huge meets to start off the year were Linnea who at the age of 16 took off the kind of time only a young age group swimmer can with huge drops in many of her events. She couldn't have dreamt of a better start to the year. Greg and Nathan also had fantastic meets to kick off the season with tons of best times. Kevin was the star of the 10 and under age group in his last meet as a 10 year old and always right on his heals was his training partner Ryan who narrowly missed him in a great 200 IM final. Connor and Brendan also swam their first ever 1500's and did a great job.

There were too many other great results to mention. Please keep posted for a more detailed report once official results are posted.

But beyond great races this meet offered a fantastic opportunity that many meets in Alberta do not offer. For many it was their first time billeting and they all had a fantastic time. We had many comments from parents saying how great, fun and respective all of our swimmers were. This is an experience that very few have and these swimmers will grow because of it. Even our youngest, 10 year old Ryan expressed how much fun he had staying at another families home with our most senior swimmer Kyle and Calvin.

From great swims to new experiences this was a great meet for a number of reasons.

Training!

The senior group has finally had our first FULL 8 practice week of training. Everyone was tired by the end of the week but it was in a good way. Everyone is figuring where they are at heading into the first full meet of the year this weekend is Saskatoon. Most of you are swimming 9-10 races and it should be a very successful weekend. Skills are the focus this weekend. Lets see how well you can keep it together when you are in the a race situation!

Tuesday mornings are about to start. Our first Tuesday morning workout will be Tuesday November 6th. Rarely will we ever take the Monday after a meet off instead we will take the Tuesday morning off. That extra bit of sleep will help you in the recovery process from a meet more so than taking an evening off. There will be exceptions to this, such as when we rest for an out of town meet like Victoria. Then we will take Monday night and possibly Tuesday morning off as well.

Keep checking back for regular updates. I hope to have some videos up of some of the races after Saskatoon.

Can you find yourself?

These are the backstroke turns from 10 and under series.

Your on candid camera

Dives from 10 and under series #1 Sunday at Fountain Park.

Great Sayings #2

Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.
-Vince Lombardi

Practice Changes

If you are not attending Saskatoon, there will be no practice Thursday. Friday and Saturday will be the same swim times, but dryland will be cancelled friday and saturday.

Great Sayings

"Champions aren't made in the gym; they are made by something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision" Muhammad Ali

National Time Standards 2007-2008

Here is the link for the National Time Standads 2007-2008

http://www.swim.bc.ca/admin/docs/Time%20Standards/National_Standards_2007_2008.pdf

Greetings

Hello all,
It has been a fun start to the season. Everyone seems excited and I am looking forward to the results that we as a group will achieve in the pool this season.
The swimmers have big goals, as do I, and I hope that we can achieve them together.
If you ever have any questions or concerns please send them my way.
Here's to a great year!