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The Sault Surge Aquatic Team returned home from Timmins and Thunder Bay over the May 23rd to 25th weekend with a combined 196 new personal best times. 21 Surge swimmers returned from the ABLE Energy Grand Prix meet in Thunder Bay with a total of 66 medals (17 gold, 25 Silver, 24 Bronze) finishing in third place out of 11 teams from throughout northern Ontario as well as a club representing Minnesota.
Sophia Li, 13, picked up a total of 9 medals, 3 of each colour along with 9 personal best times. Li picked up event wins in the girls 13-14 800m freestyle, 50m and 100m backstroke events.
Oliver Bennetto, 14, swam to a gold, a silver and 2 bronze medals. Bennetto won the boys 13-14 1500m freestyle event.
Lenden Ellis, 14, earned 3 silver and 4 bronze medals along with 8 new personal best times.
Ellis and Bennetto shared the podium finishing 2-3 in the 800m freestyle event.
Andrew Li, 15, picked up an event win and gold medal in the boys 15 and over 50m backstroke along with 2 silver medals in the 100m and 200m backstroke events.
Graham Oak, 8, Joseph Thomson, 8, and Ben Barber, 8, all had a great first meet swimming in an Olympic sized pool combined for 12 personal best times. Barber earned a bronze medal in the boys 10 and under 50m freestyle.
William Paranuik swam to 9 personal best times and earned 3 silver and 2 bronze medals in the boys 11-12 age group.
Brooklyn Barber, 12, picked up gold medals for event wins in the girls 11-12 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly and 400 individual medley event.
Surge swimmers swept the podium for the girls 11-12 100m butterfly with Barber sharing the podium with Angela Thomson, 12, and Margot Oak, 11.
Thomson swam to gold medals in the 800m freestyle and 200m butterfly events. Thomson also picked up another 4 silver and 1 bronze medals.
Oak set 9 new personal best times and won the girls 50m and 200m backstroke events along with a silver and bronze medals.
Eva Moreau, 12, swept the girls 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events along with 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.
The Surge relay team in the 11-12 age group of Oak, Moreau, Thomson, and Maddi Erb, 12, won the 4 x100m medal relay event and just missed out in the 4 x 100 freestyle (Thomson, Erb, Oak, Barber) event being touched out by The Thunder Bay team by less than a second and a half.
Alma Da Silva Castillejo,15, swam to a bronze medal in the girls 15 and over 1500m freestyle as well as 11 new personal best times.
Madeleine Dagenais, 14, swam to 8 new personal best times and made the finals in a number of individual events in her age group.
Anna Paranuik,10, competing in her first meet in an olympic sized pool swam to 4 top 10 placings in the girls 10 and under age group.
Ryelind Pihlaja, 14, swam to 9 new personal best times and 5 top 10 finishes in her age group.
Eva Robinson, 15, swam to 9 personal best times and earned a silver medal and 2 bronze medals for her performance in her age group.
Emma Vallee, 13, earned a gold medal in the 50m breaststroke along with silver medals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. Valle also earned a bronze medal in the 400m individual medley event.
Haylen Leonard, 17, swam to 5 new personal best times and finsihed in the top 8 in 6 of her events for her age group.
Jenna Morin,13, swam to 12 new personal best times which was the team high for the meet as she swam to a personal best in nearly every preliminary and final race that she competed in.
All Surge swimmers demonstrated that competitive drive as nearly all final event swims were faster than swam in the morning preliminary event.
At the Fred Rams memorial Northeastern Region ‘B’ Championships 12 Surge swimmers represented the team and swam to an 8th overall finish amongst 11 teams competing.
A total of 55 new personal best times were set along with 25 medals including 4 gold, 14 silver and 7 bronze medals.
Elijah Erickson, 13, led the team with 8 new personal best times swimming to a new best time everytime he dove into the water.
Wyatt Greenwood, 8, earned a gold medal in the boys 8 and under 200m freestyle as well as a silver and a bronze medal.
Asher Leask,9, won gold in the boys 9-10 age group 50m breaststroke event along with 2 silver and 3 bronze medals.
Finnley Walker, 10, won the boys 9-10 100m butterfly event along with 4 silver medals and a bronze medal.
Sofia Naquitquitan, 8, earned a gold medal in the girls 8 and under 100m butterfly event as well as 5 silver medals and a bronze medal.
Sidney Walker, 8, earned a silver and a bronze medal in the girls 8 and under age group.
Judah Erickson, 11, Deane Greenwood, 11, Liam Leask, 11, Zian Naquitquitan, 11, Samantha Gardner, 13, Miia Tanninen, 13, all had a strong meet contributing to the teams point and personal bests tally.
As most members of the Surge squad have completed their respective competitive schedule, the team’s provincial championship qualifiers will continue to train and prepare to compete at the upcoming Ontario Swimming Championships in Toronto in July.
The team will be holding its registration for new members in July and August for the new season that gets underway in September. Anyone looking for further information can checkout the team website at www.saultsurge.com.
Source: Sault Surge
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