Mitch Calvert
Two members of the Fort Frances Aquanauts Swim Team made their presence felt at the Golden Plains Invitational swim meet in Winnipeg over the weekend.
Donovan Taylor hauled in five gold and two silver medals in his first big meet since recovering from a back injury he suffered in the pool here in January.
“This is where I wanted him to be,” Aquanauts’ coach Dawnn Taylor said of her son.
“He didn’t make any blistering times, but this weekend was just to get back in the pool, feel what a 50-metre pool feels like again [compared to 25 metre], and push yourself, but not the point that it hurts, because he was just coming off a serious [back] injury,” she noted.
Taylor, 14, is now preparing for the Island Invitational in Victoria, B.C. in less than two weeks.
“It [Winnipeg] was a prelude to the B.C. meet [in 10 days],” Dawnn Taylor said. “The pool in Victoria is known as a fast pool, and we’re quite looking forward to it.
“[Donovan is] ranked one, two, or three in all of his events going in,” she added. “Surprisingly, one of the biggest competitors he’s got is from Barrie, and it’s funny that I’m hauling him to the other end of the country to go against another Ontario swimmer.”
Taylor’s one blemish on the weekend came in the 100m free as he later was disqualified after earning a silver medal.
“He had a glitch on the block,” Taylor noted. “Anticipation of the finals, it was really tight between him and another swimmer [Eric Williamson], and he moved the upper part of his body by three inches on the block and they disqualified him for movement on the block after the race.
“But that’s why we went out there—to get that stuff out of his system,” she reasoned.
After the B.C. meet, Taylor then will set his sights on the provincials in early July before wrapping up the season at the nationals in Montreal in mid-July.
“Every long course provincial championship is on the same weekend, and are open, meaning you don’t have to be from that province to compete in it,” Taylor explained.
“We’re going to the Manitoba/Saskatchewan provincials [in Winnipeg] as opposed to the Ontario ones [in Etobicoke],” she noted. “Just makes sense to go to Winnipeg since it’ll be a fast pool there, too, and the same level of competition, but just a lot closer.”
Meanwhile, Jillian Gustafson also represented the Aquanauts well in Winnipeg, and along with Katja Sutherland will be making the trip with Taylor to Victoria.
Their compete results were as follows:
•Donovan Taylor (14)—100m fly (1:05:32, 1st), 100m free (DQ), 200m back (2:22:93, 1st), 200m free (2:07:62, 2nd), 200m IM (2:24:89, 1st), 50m free (26:94, 2nd), and 100m back (1:06:76, 1st); and
•Jillian Gustafson (14)—100m free (1:12:65, 22nd), 200m back (2:53:47, 15th), 200m free (2:46:38, 39th), 100m back (1:21:56, 14th), 50m free (34:16, 29th), 50m fly (38:45, 31st), 50m back (38:73, 13th), and 50m breast (43:57, 20th).
