Kirk top Aquanaut at Lakehead

Kim Kirk was the top Aquanaut at the Thunder Bay Thunderbolts swim meet over the weekend, finishing second in the final of her 100m free event.
Jeff Plumridge was the only other local swimmer to make a final, placing sixth in his 200m breast event.
Kim Murray, Andrea Boileau, Sarah McTavish, Nathan Baird, Steven Gushulak, Richard Allen, and Brendan Cumming also competed in the Lakehead.
Aquanaut head coach Debbie Murray said her team swam better than it did a year ago at this same meet, which is held in a long-course pool (50 m in length).
The pool at the Sportsplex here is only 25 metres long, with Murray noting it usually takes a while for the swimmers to get accustomed to the longer pool.
“The first time we’re in a bigger pool is in the warm-ups,” she said. “You simply don’t train for it and the pacing of the race changes.”
She noted the Thunder Bay swimmers would have been training in the longer pool for about three or four weeks before the meet.
The Dolphin Aquatics of Minneapolis won the team title with 771.50 points, followed by the Twin Cities Mach 3 Flyers (588) and the Manta Club of Winnipeg (489).
In other swim news, Jim Cumming of Fort Frances was presented with the Masters Official badge by Swim Ontario on Saturday night. The badge is the highest level for an official in Ontario.
The next competition for the Aquanauts is slated June 5-7 when they host the regional championships, which will bring about 120 swimmers here.