Lucas Punkari
Despite having fewer members than most of the 21 clubs taking part in the Division III provincial team championships in Thunder Bay on the weekend, the Fort Frances Aquanauts still amassed 138 points to come away with a ninth-place showing.
“That’s really good considering what we went in there with,” Aquanauts’ coach Dawnn Taylor noted.
“Most of the big points come from the relays, and we were only able to field two girls’ teams and no boys’ teams,” she explained.
“So the team did really well to accomplish what they did.”
Donovan Taylor, fresh off a training session at the University of Western Ontario in London the previous weekend, dominated the meet—collecting five gold medals in the boys’ 15 and over age division.
“It wasn’t as high-powered of a meet as something like the ‘Easterns,’ but it was still a pretty fun weekend,” said Taylor, who finished first in the 200m I.M., the 200m back, the 100m fly, the 200m free, and the 400m I.M.
“It was a good meet to warm up for the long-course meets that are coming up next month, and I had a blast competing against the guys that were there,” he added.
Matching Taylor’s five gold-medal performance was Adam Stromberg, who struck gold in the 100m free, the 200m breast, the 200m free, the 100m breast, and the 50m free events in the boys’ 11-12 division.
“The big boys came through like we hoped they would,” Dawnn Taylor said.
“It was kind of funny with Adam after because he had kids coming up to him afterwards wanting his autograph on Sunday, and we thought that we might have had to get some bodyguards for him,” she joked.
Levi Rittau also had a strong weekend for the Aquanauts in the boys’ 13-14 age group, netting silver medals in the 200m and 50 free events, along with a bronze in the 100m free.
“I would have to say that my best race was in the 200m free,” Rittau said.
“I gave it all that I had in the last 50-25 meters to try and catch the guy ahead of me [Jonathan Kidd of Elliot Lake], but in the end he was just able to beat me out.
“I would of liked to have got the gold, but silver’s still okay,” he reasoned.
Meanwhile, Regan Danylchuk captured silver in the girls’ 11-12 200m I.M. to along with a bronze-medal showing in the 50m free.
“She came through in those two events, and she also had some really strong performances in the races that she didn’t medal in,” Dawnn Taylor noted.
Rounding out the medallists for the Aquanauts were Sarah Rittau, who won silver in the girls’ 10 and under 50m free, and Lyndsi Jo Wilson, who took the bronze in the girls’ 11-12 100m back.
“Sarah just knocked one out of the park in that 50 free, and that was one of the best races I’ve seen her do in a long time,” her coach said.
“Lyndsi Jo had a phenomenal race in her 100m back,” added Taylor.
“But her best race was actually in the 100m free, where she came into the race seeded in 16th place and ended up finishing in sixth place.”
Besides the medallists, Taylor felt all of her swimmers who took part in the Division III meet performed well, with Joshua Cousineau’s performance in the boys’ 10 and under 100m free standing out.
“He went out and took 30-some seconds off of his time, and we all just stood there with our mouths open going, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’” she recalled.
“In that one race, he went from a swimmer to a racer, and to watch that happen was really fun to watch,” Taylor added.
Four Aquanauts—Levi Rittau, Regan Danylchuk, Donovan Taylor, and Adam Stromberg—currently are set to take part in the Golden Plains Invitational on May 6-8 in Winnipeg.
Then the rest of the club is slated to compete in the May Invitational on May 27-29 in Thunder Bay.
In between those two meets, Donovan Taylor will head out to Halifax for a meet May 21, where he’ll be representing Team Ontario against swimmers from Nova Scotia and Quebec.
