A small group of Aquanauts made the trip to Thunder Bay in late May for the 35th-annual Thunderbolts International swim meet.
Five local swimmers competed in the event, which attracted 240 swimmers from 19 different swim clubs across North America, including ones from Minnesota, Sault Ste. Marie, and the host Thunderbolts.
In the girls’ 13-14 age bracket, Aquanaut Caitlin Sande, 14, qualified for the 100m butterfly final by finishing fifth in the preliminaries, then wound up sixth in the final with a time of 1:23.25.
Sande also squeaked into the 50m freestyle final, finishing in eighth spot with a time of 32.32.
Teammate Jillian Gustafson, 13, qualified for the 100m backstroke final and finished in sixth place with a time of 1:24.27 against a field mostly a year older than her.
Gustafson also narrowly missed out on the finals in both the 100m breaststroke and backstroke events, finishing one spot out of the top eight in both preliminaries.
Christopher Allen, 15, competed in the boys’ 15-and-over age bracket in the 100m and 200m backstroke, as well as the 100m freestyle, but failed to advance to the finals in either of those.
He also had some hard luck in the 200m breaststroke, finishing ninth in the preliminaries to miss the final by one position.
In the girls’ 11-12 age bracket, 12-year-old Katja Sutherland had her best showing in the 200m breaststroke, finishing in 10th spot with a time of 3:39.15.
And fellow Aquanaut Levi Rittau, 11, also had a solid showing in Thunder Bay, finishing sixth overall in the 50m freestyle with a time of 36.49. He also had top-10 finishes in the 200m freestyle and 100m breaststroke.
This meet wrapped up the competitive season for the Aquanauts, who won’t return to the pool until September.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
