Aquanauts clock best times at Division III championships

Although the Aquanauts won’t know exactly where they finished at the Division III team championships in Etobicoke last week for a while yet, they do know they performed phenomenally well on an individual basis.
In fact, the 23 Aquanauts who went clocked 72 out of a possible 115 best times against swimmers from 54 other teams from across the province.
Jeff Plumridge broke his own club record in the 100m breast stroke, recording a time of 1:14:20. He also reached the finals in the 200m breast, finishing in eighth place with a time of 2:45:86.
Andrea Boileau also placed eighth in the finals of the 100m butterfly, finishing with a time of 1:18:22, while Kim Kirk came fifth in the finals of the 100m freestyle (1:02:18).
“As far as expectations, our swimmers surpassed that by going to the finals and recording all of those best times,” Aquanaut head coach Debbie Murray said yesterday afternoon, a day after the 20-hour plus bus ride home.
Murray said she was elated with the effort her swimmers gave at the meet.
“The swimmers put in a memorable determination in all of their swimming events; they all did their best,” she enthused. “We had terrific team spirit and excellent swimming performances.”
Murray also was impressed with the way the swimmers handled themselves out of the pool.
“All the swimmers represented Fort Frances as excellent ambassadors both in their competitive efforts and through their sportsmanship during competition, and the many activities the swimmers took in over the course of the trip,” she noted.
Each swimmer participated in the maximum five events allowed according to meet rules to accommodate the roughly 1,100 competitors on hand.
Leading the way with best times in all five races were Amanda Allan, Ashleigh Dutton, Heather Dutton, Kim Murray, and Nathan Baird.
Karli McKinnon, Lindsay Smith, Andrea Boileau, Megan Hebert, Marina Boileau, Boyd Badiuk, Timothy Green, and Richard Allan all recorded best times in four out of five races.
Sarah McTavish, Jolene Richert, Elissa Green, Steven Boileau, Steven Gushulak, Brendan Cumming, Jamie Beadow, and Gavin Paull were the other Aquanauts who competed in Etobicoke.
The top two teams at the Division III championships will move up to Division II next year while the bottom two teams in Division II will drop down.