Ponoka’s summer swim club, the Ponoka Gators, hosted one of its biggest swim meets ever.
Gators president Christine Nywening said there were so many entrants into the swim meet on July 14 that they had to cancel the relay races to accommodate everyone.
With 252 swimmers attending, she feels it was a testament to the organization’s positive environment. “It was such a large meet that if we had included everything we would have ran until 7:30/8 o’clock tonight,” she explained.
“We only had the pool rented till 6 p.m. and it’s way too long a day for everyone.”
She suggests the large turnout says a lot about Ponoka, the Gators and the swim meet itself.
As for the season, there’s one more swim meet before regionals and provincials. For now, the focus is on developing competitive swimmers, but more importantly to see them do well on a personal level.
Of the about 88 registered swimmers there are about 25 competitive swimmers.
Results:
The Gators had a relatively strong performance with the boys ranked third overall out of eight swim clubs and the girls ranked fourth.
Swimmers also had some strong races with these aggregate medal winners:
• Blaine Cabay - silver 9 to 10 boys
• Kate Hollingsworth - gold 13 to 14 girls
• Aspen McTaggart - bronze 13 to 14 girls
• Daniel Lehr-Nichols - gold 15 to 17 boys
• Maia Hoogers - gold 15 to 17
• Owen Thompson - Bronze 15 to 17 boys
• Aidan Johns - bronze 18 and over boys