Staff
Donovan Taylor and Krista Emond were the Aquanauts with the most wind in their sails at the club’s home meet over the weekend at the Memorial Sports Centre.
Taylor, 15, and Emond, 16, captured first place in the 15-and-over male and female divisions, respectively.
Taylor’s 180 points put him 10 ahead of second-place Chris Draper while Emond’s 177 points had her 51 up on teammate Serena Stromberg, who finished second.
Taylor won all nine of his races while Emond won eight of nine, with a second-place in the 50m backstroke.
Stromberg, meanwhile, won three races to along with two second-place and two third-place finishes.
Levi Rittau finished second in the age 11-12 male category with 171 points, 50 behind Kyle Moreau of Kenora.
Rittau won six of his nine races, with second-place finishes in the three breaststroke events.
Aquanaut teammate Adam Stromberg finished third in the same category with 148 points, capturing first place in the 50m breaststroke and finishing second in three other races.
Justis Gauthier ended up 10th with 82 points, followed by Mitchell Riordon in 11th place with 79.
In the age 13-14 female category, Jillian Gustafson and Katja Sutherland tied for seventh with 116 points each.
Gustafson earned a first-place showing in 50m breaststroke and took second in the 50m backstroke, with Sutherland snagging a second place in the 100m breaststroke.
In the age 11-12 female division, Regan Danylchuk and Lyndsi Jo Wilson ended up sixth and seventh with 116 and 106 points, respectively.
Danylchuk won the 50m butterfly and picked up a third-place finish in the 100m butterfly, with Wilson finishing third in the 50m backstroke.
Cole Trimble, Chad Westover, and Joshua Cousineau finished fifth, sixth, and seventh in the 10-and-under male category, respectively, while Hunter Bourassa was 10th.
Trimble notched 79 points, Westover earned 60, Cousineau came up with 49, and Bourassa got 33.
Westover and Trimble finished second and third, respectively, in the 50m breaststroke for their highest finishes.
And in the 10-and-under female category, Anika Beaudry earned sixth spot with her 117 points while Sarah Rittau ended up in 10th with 79.
Tayla Trimble and Clara Davis finished 18th and 19th with 33 and 31 points, respectively.
Whitney Gouin was 21st with 21 points.
Beaudry finished second in the 100m breaststroke, as well as picked up thirds in the 200m breaststroke and 200m backstroke.
Rittau, meanwhile, snagged a third-place finish in the 50m breaststroke.
Aquanauts’ coach Dawnn Taylor enthused that her swimmers set 98 new personal bests times over the weekend, including some noticeable improvements.
Wilson highlighted the strides that Aquanaut swimmers made, cutting just over 45 seconds in the 200m I.M. race.
She had recorded 4:22.94 as her seed time, but swam 3:37.59 over the weekend.
Wilson also cut nearly 34 seconds in the 200m freestyle event, going from 3:57.60 to 3:23.74.
Levi Rittau shaved more than 30 seconds off his time in the 200m breaststroke, sliding from 3:57.36 to 3:27.00.
Meanwhile, a pair of swimmers cut roughly 29 seconds in the 200m freestyle. Danylchuk went from 3:41.52 to 3:12.23 while Gauthier’s time slid from 3:54.97 to 3:25.12.
Gauthier also cut about seven seconds in a pair of his shorter races, decreasing from 49.70 to 42.67 in the 50m freestyle and from 56.72 to 49.97 in the 50m backstroke.
Gouin made the most dramatic improvement in a 50m race, though, declining from 1:37.29 to 1:11.64 in the 50m breaststroke—almost a 26-second difference.
Westover trimmed his time in the 50m backstroke by nearly 14 seconds, going from 1:15.17 to 1:01.85.
As well, Riordon cut more than eight seconds from his time in the 50m breaststroke (1:12.10 to 1:03.84).
The Aquanauts next will hit the pool for the regional championships Feb. 26-28 in Thunder Bay.
Taylor will compete at the short-course junior provincial championships in Etobicoke that same weekend.
