Trail Winter Swim Club makes splash at Kelowna meet
By Contributor
Competitive swimmers from the Trail Winter Swim Club (TWSC) – Trail Regional Academy of EXcellence (TRAX) Aquatic Program competed in the Kelowna SNOW FEST Invitational Short Course Swim Meet Jan. 17 to 19.
Under the direction of head coach Bill Park, Junior Boys “BLAIZE’n FAST” – Dylan Kormendy’s competitive swim – lead him to victory, breaking several meet records. In the 11 and under boys division, Dylan started with a best-time performance in the 1500m free event (improving 79.91 seconds) and qualifying for the highest level of competitive swimming in the province of B.C., Swim BC Short Course AAA Championships at the end of this month in Kamloops. Dylan came first overall with best-time wins in all his events, 200m Breast; 400m Individual Medley; 50,100 and 200m Fly, 200m Back and 400m Freestyle.
At his first participation in a Swim Canada/Swim BC sanctioned event, Carson Ogloff had a first place finish in the 50m Free, second in the 50m Fly, 100m Back, 200m Free final and third in his 200m Individual Medley and 50m Breast stroke events.
Johnny Ekinci, also in the 11 and under category, placed third in the 50m Back, fourth in the 100m Back and fifth overall in the 200m Back final Sunday.
Jackson Konkin (13) won the 1500m Free event and qualified for the AAAs in the 100 and 200m Back, 400m IM and 100m Free events. Eden Kormendy one of the top 13-year-old female swimmers in Canada, also broke meet records and won the 12 – 13 girls 50, 100 and 200m Breast stroke and 200 and 400 IM events, as well as the exciting 100 and 200m Freestyle races she attacked.
Fifteen-year-old Martin Gonzalez placed first in the 200m Free event with a personal best time of 2:08.43; third in the 200m Back and fourth in the 200 Individual Medley.
Riley Mager (14) placed third in the boys 1500m Free, fourth in the 200 and 400m Free events; Sam Matthew placed fourth in the boys 14-15 100 and 200m Breast, also qualifying for AAAs.
Sharman Thomas (14) came fourth in the 400m IM —Boys 13/14 TEAM Relays placed 3rd in the 200m Free and Medley.
Aby Elwood(13) placed second in the 800m FREE and 100 and 200m Fly events as another AAA qualifier. Jennifer Chung placed third in the 50m Fly and 200m IM and fourth in the region for the 100m Free event.
The Academy swimmers train vigorously at the “Home of Champions” Trail Aquatic and Leisure Centre with dreams to compete competitively in provincial, national and international swim meets. Our TRAX to future champions academy program successfully prepared academy swimmers to qualify and participate at SNOW FEST meet, and the program is well on its way to ensuring more young swimmers get the quality fundamental swimming skills that they need to participate at this and higher level meets in the sport of competitive swimming in Canada.
For anyone interested in joining the Trail Winter Swim Club please email: programdirectortwsc@outlook.com
