Aquanauts impress at Kenora swim meet

A handful of Fort Frances Aquanauts were in Kenora over the weekend for the Northwest Ontario Regional Invitational swim meet.
And judging by the results, swimming is on the rise in Fort Frances.
Every local swimmer who took part in the meet came away with a personal best time in at least two events.
“There was great improvement,” said Aquanauts’ head coach Dawnn Taylor. “Everybody came back with at least two personal best times.”
The marked improvement is no accident.
“We’ve been working on fine-tuning our techniques,” noted Taylor. “Making our turns, making our starts; a lot of the little things. And this was the first meet where we had a chance to put the pieces together.
“We were asking a lot of these kids, but they did very well.”
The Aquanauts, who ranged in age from eight-15, competed in a total of 43 races during the Kenora meet. More than half of those were personal best times.
Jillian Gustafson, 13, was on fire during the meet—earning record times in all eight of her races.
“Jillian came back with 100 percent personal bests,” enthused Taylor. “And she took considerable time off of her pervious times.
“I don’t think she’s ever done that before.”
Caitlin Sande, 14, improved her times in five races, including a 35.86-second win in the 50m butterfly event.
“Both Caitlin and Jillian got their first win of the season,” noted Taylor.
Gustafson took top spot in the 50m butterfly event for her age group, as well.
Anika Beaudry racked up four best times of her own while Adam Stromberg, Katja Sutherland, Donovan Taylor, and Christopher Allan each picked up personal bests in two events each.
“We’re on the right road,” said Taylor.
The next big meet for local swimmers is the Golden Plains Invitational, which runs in Winnipeg during the first week in May. Since minimum qualifying times are required, only a few Aquanauts will be attending it.
“You need to be at that higher level to compete,” explained Taylor. “But we’ve still got four or five who are going.”
But before the Winnipeg trip, some of the younger swimmers will have an event of their own: a one-day meet in Dryden on April 26.
“We’re getting some of the young kids out for that one,” Taylor said.