Lucas Punkari
It was a finish that defied explanation—and one that’s also a very rare occurrence.
During the 50m freestyle eliminator finals Sunday morning at the NWO Open in Kenora, Fort Frances Aquanaut teammates Donovan Taylor and Adam Stromberg swam identical times of 26.09 seconds to finish tied for top spot.
“I don’t think a movie script could have done anything like it,” said Aquanauts’ head coach Dawnn Taylor.
“And even if you planned everything out and did the scene in slow motion, it still wouldn’t have been possible,” she added.
“After the race itself, the meet manager came up to me and said that I needed to tell both of my swimmers that they had to have a swim-off—and both of them couldn’t believe it.
“So instead, they both elected to share the title and they both signed the swim cap that will be put in the trophy case here,” Taylor said.
“And with Donovan’s wins in the other three races, it was sort of like the big dog handing it off to the little dog in a sense this weekend.”
Donovan Taylor took home the eliminator titles in the 50m butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke races earlier Sunday in an event that was unique to the Kenora meet.
“They would have the regular 50m races on Friday night, and they would take the top six fastest times from the boys and the girls and have them race each other on Saturday morning,” Dawnn Taylor explained.
“From there, the fastest four would race again on Saturday afternoon, which would set up the finals on Sunday morning.”
In addition to tying Taylor in the 50m freestyle, Stromberg made it to the final four in the 50m backstroke.
Fellow Aquanauts Regan Danylchuk and Kaela Lowey, meanwhile, also picked up final four spots in the breaststroke and freestyle events, respectively.
As for the meet itself, Dawnn Taylor was pleased with her team’s performances, with all 11 members who attended setting or coming close to breaking their previous personal best times during the course of the weekend.
“It was a good meet overall when it came to swimmers achieving their milestones,” she noted.
“Even the little swimmers, such as Jacy Gagne and Cassidy Roach, did phenomenal in races that they had never been in before.”
The Aquanauts now will prepare for their final meet of the season—the May Invitational coming up May 27-29 in Thunder Bay.
“This will be a long-course event, so that means there’s going to be a whole other set of challenges for everyone,” Dawnn Taylor said.
“One thing that I saw during the course of the weekend in Kenora was that everyone was having issues with stroke counts and with being consistent on the walls, and that’s something we are going to be working on a lot here in the next month,” she stressed.
