The Dolphin Invitational has a nice ring to it, but the Dutton Invitational may have been more fitting.
Heather Dutton rocketed her way to six first-place finishes out of the six events she competed in last weekend to become the highlight performer for the Fort Frances Aquanauts at the Selkirk, Man. meet, which attracted about 250 swimmers.
Dutton didn’t set any personal best times, but she still was the class of the 15-and-over field as she continues to aim towards the junior provincials later this season.
Her sister, Rachel, wasn’t far behind her older sibling, taking five firsts and a second in her six events at Selkirk.
Head coach Roman Ramirez wasn’t there, having to oversee the 12-and-under Aquanauts at the M&C Motors sprint meet in Atikokan last weekend. But from the reports he received, the Duttons and the rest of the seven-member contingent managed just fine without him.
“I guess they swam pretty good from what I heard,” said Ramirez. “After the Prairie Winter Invitational [the previous weekend in Winnipeg], they were pretty tired. But they still showed very well in Selkirk.”
In other news, the Aquanauts are trying to confirm their spot in a meet in Minnesota early in the new year, but Ramirez couldn’t give exact dates as of press time.
Here are the individual Aquanaut results from last weekend’s meet in Selkirk (* denotes personal best):
•Jessica Cousineau, 13—100m fly (1:29.57, 2nd), 200m back (2:53.83, 2nd), 400m free (5:22.56, 3rd), 200m IM (2:59.14, 3rd), 200m free (2:35.99, 4th), 50m fly (39.37, 5th)
•Heather Dutton, 17—50m fly (32.23, 1st), 100m free (1:04.89, 1st), 200m IM (2:38.66, 1st), 200m free (2:18.52, 1st), 50m free (29.59, 1st), 100m fly (1:11.32, 1st)
•Rachel Dutton, 13—50m fly (*34.22, 1st), 100m free (1:07.01, 1st), 200m IM (*2:41.71, 1st), 200m free (2:22.63, 1st), 50m free (30.87, 1st), 100m back (*1:16.57, 2nd)
•Nicole Fontana, 12—50m back (40.58, 3rd), 100m back (1:26.44, 3rd), 200m IM (*3:11.27, 4th), 100m free (*1:16.03, 6th), 50m free (35.06, 11th), 200m back (DQ)
•Nichole Lowey, 12—200m breast (3:17.63, 1st), 100m breast (1:30.83, 1st), 200m free (*2;45.75, 1st), 100m free (*1:15.91, 5th), 100m back (*1:32.36, 10th), 50m free (35.49, 13th)
•Alex Parent, 14—100m free (1:06.05, 1st), 200m free (2:21.08, 1st), 50m free (30.69, 1st), 200m IM (*2:45.74, 2nd), 50m fly (*34.09, 3rd), 100m fly (1:19.35, 3rd)
•Megan Wihnan, 13—100m free (1:13.72, 4th), 400m free (*5:39.66, 4th), 200m IM (*3:08.70, 6th)
Fort Frances Times
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