Aquanauts want to rule Minneapolis pool

It’s been three weeks off for the Fort Frances Aquanauts—just don’t try and tell the swimmers.
While this weekend’s long-course event in Minneapolis will see the Aquanauts diving back into competition for the first time since the Half-Way Motors Nissan International in Thunder Bay on May 24-25, there’s been no shortage of pool time for the squad.
Head coach Roman Ramirez has been running his troops through their paces in his typically rigorous fashion—all in an attempt to get them in position for success not only this weekend, but in more crucial events later this summer.
“I don’t think the layoff from racing will hurt the team,” said Ramirez, who is taking 14 swimmers to Minneapolis. “We prepared for this break heading into the season.
“I expect they will make some good times there. I think we’re ahead of schedule when it comes to our progress in the long-course season.
“We’ve been improving our times in long-course throughout, and hopefully by the Man.-Sask. meet [June 29-July 1 in Regina], we’ll be showing our best times,” he added.
The Aquanauts will be the lone Canadian squad in the 11-team field at Minneapolis, and their unfamiliarity with their opponents is something Ramirez believes will play into his swimmers’ hands.
“Sometimes, there is too much pressure when you know your competition because our swimmers look at the other swimmers and say, ‘Oh, no, they’re really fast,” noted Ramirez.
“In this kind of meet, we won’t get that feeling because we won’t know what level of competition we’ll be facing,” he reasoned.
By weekend’s end, Ramirez also would love to double his contingent of swimmers qualified for the long-course club nationals starting July 17 in Calgary.
“I’m confident Karli [McKinnon] and Rachel [Dutton] will reach the time they need,” said Ramirez, who already has Boyd Badiuk and Heather Dutton slated to head west next month.
“Karli came within 1/100th of a second in the 50m free. She wants to make it really badly.
“It would be good if they could reach those times this meet [in Minneapolis],” added Ramirez. “Then we’ll have three to four weeks to really prepare for the club nationals.”
< *c>Award winners
After hundreds of hours in the pool and thousands of laps in both practice and competition, the top Aquanauts were recognized at the club’s annual awards banquet last night.
Here are the winners:
•Girls’ competitive freestyle —Rachel Dutton
•Boys’ competitive freestyle—Alex Parent
•Girls’ competitive breaststroke—Jessica Lowey
•Boys’ competitive breaststroke—Kyle Perrott
•Girls’ achievement breaststroke—Karli McKinnon
•Boys’ achievement breaststroke—Boyd Badiuk
•Girls’ competitive butterfly—Heather Dutton
•Boys’ competitive butterfly—Donovan Cousineau
•Girls’ most improved I.M.—Heather Dutton
•Boys’ most improved (James Brown Award)—Kenneth Kellar
•Most dedicated swimmer—Jessica Cousineau
•Most improved new competitive swimmer—Krista Emond
•Girls’ top age group swimmer—Heather Dutton
•Boys’ top age group swimmer—Alex Parent
•Most improved novice swimmer—Bryson Skirten, Serena Stromberg (tie)
•FFAST Plaque (fun, friendship, attitude, stroke, turns)—Nicole Fontana
•Division II—Rachel Dutton
•Swimmers’ choice award—Alex Parent