Nationals report

Day 4 ... And we finish with a bang, 100% best times and big move ups through the rankings. We finished the meet off in style with Mike getting 2 more best times, the first in the 200 IM with a 2:17.24 then in the 1500 he took off over 20 seconds to go a 16:46.43 to put that senior national cut within reach. Nadine impressed once again taking off over 11 seconds from provincials to go 9:05.11 with her traditional small negative split of 4:32.82 to 4:32.29. A sub 9 minute 800 is in her near future. That swim guarrantees her a 13th place finish or better with the final to come in the morning. That caps a great weekend and next weeks age group nationals should be even better. See you all Monday.

Day 3 ... We are now fully into the meet and there is no sign of a let down. Mike and Nadine are both still excited and swimming great after 2 more big best times. Nadine took off over 3 seconds in her 400 free to earn her a 3rd long course national cut with a time of 4:29.0 and Mike took off 5 seconds in his 400 finally break the 4:20 barrier in style to go 4:15.52. One day left and it is the big one with the Olympic length distance races and Mikes 200 IM.

Day 2 ... After the Final of the 1500 this morning Nadine ended up 11th overal with one girl from Mexico in front of her Nadine was the 10th fastest Canadian at these summer nationals. Great way to bust onto the scene!
After the heats session our 100% PB performance has continued with Nadine dropping 3 seconds in her 400 IM to go 5:22.0 and Mike broke 9:00 for the first time long course even splitting his way to an 8:48.1.


Day one... was very successful for STSC going 3 for 3 best times. Mike went 2:01.22 in his 200 free and Nadine broke club records in both the 200 free where she went 2:10.71 and she jumped way under the 18:00 barrier in the 1500 for the first time long course going 17:29.71 guaranteeing her at least a 15th place finish with the top 8 to swim in the morning. You can watch the swims live on-line: go to http://www.swimming.ca/, click on events, summer nationals and video/photo. ThursdayNadine will swim the 400IM shortly after 5:00pm and Mike will swim the 800 around 7:00pm, FridayNadine will swim the 400 free around 4:20 and Mike around 5:00 Saturday Mike will swim the 200 IM around 4:40 and the 1500 around 7:50, Nadine will swim her 800 around 7:00. All finals will start at 9:00am. These are Alberta times.
Keep posted!!!

Your Provincials recap is here...

Sorry for the delay, there were just so many successful stories, I didn't want to miss a thing, though I am sure I missed some any way. Please add any other highlights to the comments section. I also sent this into the newspaper so keep your eyes peeled.

Lead by 14 year old Nadine Williams and 10 year old Ryan Schamber the Silver Tide Swim Club had another very successful Age Group and Senior Championships July 3^rd-6^th at the Kinsmen Sports Center in Edmonton. We finished in 6^th place overall and like short course season we were once again the top small team there. A small team is any Alberta club with fewer than 75 competitive registrations throughout the swim season. With close to half of our team qualified for the meet, 32 athletes, the swimmers all performed very well and stood out as some of the elite this province has to offer. If this was our last year as a small team we went out in style.

One of our youngest was by far the strongest. Ryan Schamber swam 8 events plus relays and over the weekend was best times in all of his individual events. He walked away breaking nine 9-10 year old club records and 8 gold medals around his neck. He was truly a dominant force and was by far the top 10 and under male swimmer at the meet. In his last meet as a 10 year old Ryan did everything he could to make it a memorable one.

Many other swimmers really stepped up on the provincial stage and put together a fantastic weekend. With the meet finishing 2 days before her 15^th birthday, Nadine put together some great swims. She swam 8 events and made finals (top 10) in all 8 events. She won gold in the 400, 800 and 1500 meter freestyle races in dominating fashion; she is now the fastest Silver Tide swimmer ever in those events. She also collected a pair of bronze medals and narrowly missing another with a 4^th place finish. Here she showed once again that she is the top up and coming distance freestyler in the province. She will be in action again later this summer at Senior Nationals in Winnipeg and Age Group Nationals in Calgary.

Greg Kozell, 15, and Josie Poliquin, 10, were 2 other swimmers finishing with 100% best times while making a number of second swims throughout the weekend. Josie was also a leader on the 10 and under girls relay teams. Rebecca Schamber and Halle Elford also stepped up with some great swims on the 10 and under girls side. With one more full year in the age group both girls had a ton of best times and Rebecca finished in the top 10 in 7 of her 8 races making her one of the top 9 year olds in the meet. This was there first year at Age Group Championships. Other new qualifiers this year were Josie P, Matt Whiteside, Brooklyn Janzen, Delaney Weibe and Liam Strocher who made a number of second swims in his first championships.

Brendan Elford and Connor Rawson put wonderful caps on a pair of fantastic seasons but left still wanting a little bit more. After being couple of the top 12 and under swimmers for much of the year the boys both turned 13 and had to compete against the top 13-14 year olds in the province and did very well both making a number of second swims. These 2 swimmers did nothing but improve leaps and bounds at every chance they had all season narrowly missing their qualifying standards to attend Age Group Nationals later this month. It was a great job and they have nothing to be disappointed about. Sydney Harnack also finished off a great season with 7 best times and she saved her best for the last day of the competition where she had 3 best times including a bronze medal finish in the 200 breast. One of our other breast strokers also had a strong meet Sarah earned 2 bronze medals and will be back in action at Age Group Nationals. Karlyn Elford was back on her game after a couple days of rest leading into the meet she really blossomed with 7 out of 8 best times and making second swims 7 of her 8 races. She earned herself 3 new age group national time standards while inching closer and closer to that senior national cut and 3 top 5 finishes including a silver medal in the 400 IM where she became the fastest girl to ever swim the event as a member of Silver Tide. Rachelle Winsor earned us another medal with a bronze in the 50 fly missing the win by only 14 one hundredths of a second.

This was the end of a fantastic season for many of the Silver Tide swimmers and it was truly a memorable one. In an Olympic swimming year where 29 World records have already been broken (and the Olympics don’t start till August 8^th) we had plenty of successes of our own and lots to be proud of. Like anything else there were lessons learned and many successes by all. We will have 2 swimmers continuing on to represent the club at Senior Nationals in Winnipeg and 8 heading down to Calgary for the Age Group Nationals to finish off their seasons. It should be a very exciting finish.

News from out of the pool

News of success from a Silver Tide athletes success away from the pool in part from his work in the pool:

http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/Sports/408993.html