Dolphins swim to medal standings at spring meet

Abby Taylor, 14, won the bronze in the 400 freestyle event. Dolphin photos by Gillian Taylor

Quinte Dolphins swim team members dove into medal standings at the recent Spring into Action Invitational Meet in Belleville.

Head Coach Jim Anfield took 14 swimmers to the highly competitive meet, hosted by the Belleville Youth Swim team.

There were 370 swimmers attending from Belleville, Ernestown, Kingston, Whitby, Hawkesbury, Ajax, Oshawa and Prince Edward County clubs. The local dolphins collected 154 team points and brought home several medals,  ribbons, and some new times that qualify swimmers to advance to regional competition later this year.

Morgan Clark,14, led the team in points bringing home five medals including gold in the 50 free,  three silvers  in the 50 backstroke, 50 butterfly, and 100 free, and a bronze in 100 backstroke. Clark also placed 4th in the 50 breaststroke.

Annika Hudgin, 10, had the next highest point count collecting a silver medal in the 50 backstroke and  ribbons in four other events.  She achieved times required to attend this summer’s Eastern Ontario championships  and will join teammates Morgan Clark and Kelli-Anne Maycock at the event to be held in Ottawa this June.

Colm O’Sullivan placed 4th in the 200 free

Colm O’Sullivan and Kim Pothier, both 15 years of age, also achieved high points for the team.  O’Sullivan placed 4th in the 200 free and collected ribbons in four other events. Pothier placed 4th in both the 50 backstroke and 50 breaststroke in addition to placing in two other events.

Abby Taylor, 14, won the bronze in the 400 freestyle event and earned ribbons by placing in two other events. She also earned two important race times and now requires one more qualifying time in order to attend Eastern Ontario championships along with three of her teammates.

McKinley Miller, 8, earned team points placing 4th in the in the 200 backstroke and 8th in the 50 backstroke.

Kelli-Anne Maycock warming up. She placed 5th in the 200 breaststroke

Kelli-Anne Maycock, 13, placed 5th in the 200 breaststroke. She raced in Ottawa last month and earned the final time she required for entry into the Eastern Ontario long course  championships two months from now.

Faith Elsbury, 13, and Mina Hudgin, 11, assisted with the team point count.  Elsbury collected ribbons for 7th place in the 100 butterfly event and  8th place the 400 freestyle.  Hudgin was awarded the 8th place ribbon for her 50 backstroke performance.

Yelena Hudgin, 8, Moriah Mossey, 11, Alex Nickson, 12, Annie Labarge, 12, and Allison Juby, 13, posted personal best times in many events.

Coach Anfield will be accompanying team members to Ottawa this weekend for competition in long course events (50 metre pool) at both Carelton University and the Nepean Sportsplex.

The Belleville Youth Swim Team repeated as champions of the Spring Into Action Swim Meet.

The 92 BYST swimmers, including some County members, finished just ahead of the Ernestown Barracudas as both teams battled for the team cup.  The team managed 84 per cent best times and broke another four team records.

Melissa Dingle earned the overall high point award in the female 13-14 age group.  Gold medal winners were Noah Brooks, John Butler, Natalie Butler, Thomas Butler, Katelyn Cairns, Stephanie Cairns, Dingle, Alexander Grant, Ben Isaak, Rafik Jiwa, Mackenzie Latter, Leo Lossing, Nate Shiers-Redhead and Lauren Taylor.  Other medal winners included Ashley Allaire, Tyler Banez, Jackson Bonn, Josh Lamoureux, Rylan Miller, Olivia Morphet, Katie Morrison, Vladimir Novakovic and Marcus Trumpour.

Athletes with top ten placings were Janna Arnold, Kristianna Barton, Katherine Beaumont, Craig Bekker, Madeline Bonn, Floranne Carroll, Giri Chandran, Lily Charles, Nickolas Cinnamon, Colby Crowe, Lauren Donia, Riley Donia, Callum Friar, Tess Friar, Olivia Goyer, Isabella Isbester, Cameron Jardine, Gautham Krishna, Quintin Lichty, James Lossing, Henryk Luczynski, Brendan MacQuarrie, Chloe Martineau, Leah McGillen, Madeline McGillen, Jeremy Moher, Arjun Moorthy, Emily Morrison, Callum O’Neill, Jenna O’Neil, Gwen Randall, Joseph Rittenhouse, Graeme Smith, Amy Sommerville, Erin Sommerville, Abigail Szuch, Elizabeth Terry, Gracey Vanberkel and Hayden Young.

Other BYST swimmers who had impressive results were Sruthi Amalan, Madalyn Andrus, Wesley Ashley, Mackenzie Blagojevic, Lina Brennan, Alexa Buchanan, Lauren Bunt, Nicole Cairns, Lauren Chamberlain, Margaret Charles, Sydney Chumbley, Una Lajic, Paige Launderville, Madison Lees, Molin Li, Jaydan MacDonald, Karissa Manlow, Reece Monk, Meera Moorthy, Sadie Morphet, Lara Noronha, Tess O’Neill, Natalie O’Neil, Leah Oster, Elizabeth Peterson, Lily Randall, Tsering Rongtsang, Luc Simard, Emeline Williams and Christina Zhang (Full results can be found at www.byst.ca).

“The team is proud its athletes, grateful of all of the parent volunteers who helped run the competition and thankful of all of the sponsors that contributed to the event,” said Coach Brandon Oates. “A special mention goes out to the city of Belleville for working with the BYST to host some of the finest swim meets in Ontario.”

Nineteen BYST swimmers are off to Ottawa this weekend to compete at two separate meets, one at Carlton University and the other at the Nepean Sportsplex.  For more information about the club, please contact the head coach, Brandon Oates, at (613) 661 SWIM (7946).