Four swimmers with the Fort Frances Aquanaut Swim Team competed at the annual Scotiabank Prairie Winter meet in Winnipeg over the weekend, setting an array of personal bests.
Most impressive was Donovan Taylor coming away with a trio of national qualifying times—despite swimming with a broken foot.
“I can’t wait to see how fast he is when he’s healed,” his coach and mother, Dawnn Taylor, laughed.
The 13-year-old Taylor thrived at the meet, placing in the top 10 of six of his eight events despite the significant handicap of swimming with a broken right foot.
Significant and very noticeable, his mother said.
He could push off the blocks with only one foot and had to compensate for a loss of strength in the water, and wound up injuring his other foot at the pool as the weekend went on.
Still, the teen insisted on competing.
He broke his foot a week before the meet pushing off a block while training, but having torn a quadriceps while training for the Prairie Winter Invitational in 2006, he never questioned going to Winnipeg.
“I kept saying, ‘I’m gonna pull you, I’m gonna pull you.’ He said, ‘Don’t!’” his mother said. “It just wasn’t a question.”
The swimmer had his foot duct-taped for training and bound with a towel between events. But after stumbling in his first event, the 50m fly (placing 14th and missing the finals), Taylor collected three national qualifying times.
Also attending were Andre Emond, Jillian Gustafson, and Caitlin Sande. Coach Taylor said she was impressed with how all the Aquanauts swam up to the meet’s level of competition.
The meet drew competitors from across the Prairies and as far east as London, Ont.
“Oh my God, it was a tough meet,” coach Taylor said.
The Aquanauts will have three swimmers at the Candy Cane 400 in Kenora this coming Saturday in the club’s final meet of 2007.
Here are the individual results for the Aquanauts at the Scotiabank Prairie Winter 2007 (* denoted personal best and # denotes national qualifier):
•Andre Emond (12)—50m fly (40.99*)(17th), 50m back (41.06)(14th), 100m back (1:26.39*)(16th), 200m IM (3:13.98)(19th), and 200m back (3:00.29*)(17th);
•Jillian Gustafson (12)—50m fly (39.69)(28th), 50m back (40.75*)(32nd), 50m breast (44.08*), 100m back (1:23.30*)(19th), 400m IM (6:37.19)(12th), 200m back (2:57.94)(21st), 100m breast (1:37.02)(23rd), and 100m free (1:14.81)(36th);
•Caitlin Sande (13)—50m fly (35.98*)(28th), 200m free (2:32.33*)(46th), 50m free (32.27*)(30th), 200m IM (2:56.58), and 100m free (1:09.11*)(46th); and
•Donovan Taylor (13)—50m fly (31.40*)(14th), 100m back (1:06.04*#)(7th), 400m IM (5:11.50*)(7th), 100m fly (1:07.71*)(8th), 200m IM (2:25.64*#)(7th), 200m back (2:20.62*#)(5th), 200m fly (2:37.38*)(7th), and 100m free (1:00.92)(15th)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
