Joey Payeur
Two years after their last chance, the Fort Frances Aquanauts are able to “frolic” once again.
The swim team once again will host the “Boston Pizza Fall Frolic,” which runs today through Sunday morning at the Memorial Sports Centre.
Aquanauts’ head coach Dawnn Taylor is ecstatic to have the local meet back on the calendar after it had to be cancelled last year.
“Swim Ontario changed all the rules for officiating last year and we couldn’t change everything in time to meet their standards,” explained Taylor, who will have 17 swimmers competing out of the 61 expected to attend from six different clubs.
Those include the Cyclone Swim Club from here, as well as the Northwest Narwhals, the Dryden Dolphins, the Red Lake Goldfins and, in their first trip to Fort Frances, the Marathon Silver Pikes.
Noticeably absent are the Thunder Bay Thunderbolts, who chose to skip the meet, and the Kenora Swimming Sharks, who have dwindled to just eight members.
As such, they won’t be travelling to any meets this fall or even hosting their regular annual meet early next month.
“We have a very high potential for success,” Taylor predicted, referring to both this weekend and the upcoming season.
“Everyone is swimming very fast right now and we’re ahead of the game as to where we should be at this point.
“The kids are posting best times in practice,” she noted. “I think this is going to be one of our best years ever.
“We’re even looking to travel afar this year, to Vancouver Island in the spring, to compete,” added Taylor.
“We did it seven years ago and I think we’ve got that kind of talent on this team to go again.”
Part of Taylor’s enthusiasm stems from the arrival of five first-year swimmers who will be making their competitive debuts this weekend.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of new guys on the team this year, and it’s exciting to see them working on their starts and turns and strokes,” she noted.
