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.