Taylor golden at swim meet in Guelph

FORT FRANCES—A big fish is emerging from the Fort Frances Aquanauts Swim Team.
Twelve-year-old Donovan Taylor turned more than a few heads over the weekend with a series of remarkable performances at the Victor Davis Memorial Cup in Guelph, Ont.
His list of accomplishments reads like a veritable laundry list of success.
Taylor finished as the third-highest points-getter in the field of 347 competitive swimmers—and was the second-highest among the 120 males there.
He won gold in each of the 11 events in which he competed—setting new personal best standards in nine of them.
But perhaps his most notable achievement were the three meet records he eclipsed.
Taylor’s time of 1:12.64 in the 100m backstroke surpassed the standard set in 2005 by 2.14 seconds and he shaved 3.23 seconds off of the meet record in the 200m backstroke set last year.
And he smashed the time to beat in the 400m I.M. by an astounding 9.36 seconds—a record that had stood since 2003.
Given his recent success and relatively young age, it would be understandable if Taylor were eager to boast of his accomplishments. But when asked about the competition, he preferred to discuss the new friends he’d made there.
“It was pretty good,” he said of the event. “There was lots of competition.
“It was also pretty cool because even though it was competitive, there were still lots of kids that were fun to hang around with.
“Everybody was just really happy for me.”
As a result of his impressive times over the weekend, Taylor not only is making a name for himself in Ontario, where he’s ranked first in the 11-12 age group in each of his 11 events, but on the national stage, too.
For instance, he’s ranked first in the nation in the 400m I.M. and the 100m fly; third in the 200m back, 50m fly, and 200m fly; fourth in the 400m free and 200m I.M.; fifth in the 50m back; sixth in the 100m free; and 10th in 50m free and 200m free.
Adding to the remarkable nature of Taylor’s story is the fact that the Guelph meet was just his third since returning from serious injury.
Taylor tore three attachment sites in his quadriceps muscle and suffered a stress fracture in his hip while at a meet back in November. The injury kept him out of competitive swimming for roughly two months.
But Taylor used the time away productively. He trained his upper body and core extensively during his hiatus—a move that paid great dividends this past weekend.
“They tied my legs up and I was doing all core and upper body strength for a while,” Taylor said of his lay-off.
“It really helped with my freestyle and my fly,” he added. “I took off most of my time in those races. It was a lot easier this weekend because I’m using my arms more than I was beforehand.”
In fact, Tristan Hutton, Taylor’s coach with the Aquanauts, believes the injury may prove to be extremely beneficial in terms of his long-term development as a swimmer.
“Donovan really liked to over-kick, he really liked to use his legs a lot” Hutton noted.
“In a way, this injury was kind of a blessing in disguise because we were able to convince him, “OK, your legs aren’t working, let’s work on your arms.
“Those couple of months spent on practising the arms and trying to get that established, and leaving the legs to float behind, has actually got him going in the right direction,” Hutton added.
“The reason is, from a propulsive point of view, 75 to 80 percent come from the arms.”
With a more balanced approach physically, in which Taylor’s body is working in unison as opposed to being dominated by just one muscle group, Hutton believes Taylor is poised for great success in the future.
“For him, at this point as a 12 year-old, we’re on the right track for great things,” he enthused.
Next up for Taylor and his Aquanaut teammates is the Ontario Division III team championship coming up April 20-22 in Thunder Bay.