Swimmers dive into summer championship season

Season highlights include the BYST retaining the Team Cup at their final home meet of the season

The Belleville Youth Swim Team – including members from Prince Edward County – is headed into summer championship season with the best regular season results in team history.

“The team has two swimmers off to Ontario Festivals this weekend in London, where the best 13 and under swimmers in the province compete against each other,” said coach Brandon Oates. Noah Brooks and Thomas Butler will be competing in five events each and looking for top eight placings in multiple events.

The following week will see six athletes, Stephanie Cairns, Katelyn Cairns, Melissa Dingle, Rafik Jiwa, Mackenzie Latter and Lauren Taylor head to Ottawa for Provincial Championships.  Both K. Cairns, S. Cairns, Dingle, Jiwa and Taylor are off to Quebec City at the end of July for Age Group Nationals.  Nate Shiers-Redhead also qualified for both Provincials and Age Group Nationals, but is unable to attend.

“This summer will be the first time the BYST has entered a relay team at the National level,” Oates said.

The main highlight of the season was seeing two athletes qualified for Sr. Nationals – Melissa Dingle in the 50m backstroke at a time of 29.43 and Stephanie Cairns in the 400m freestyle finishing at 4:28.26.  Both will be racing in Pointe-Claire this August at Canadian Summer Championships.

“It is likely that they, along with another teammate or two, will race at Olympic Trials in 2016,” said Oates. “Other recent highlights include the BYST retaining the Team Cup at their final home meet of the season.”

Lauren Taylor came away with the high point awards in Belleville for the female 13 and 14 category, as well as winning it again a couple weeks later in Ottawa.  Taylor also qualified for Age Group Nationals for the first time.  Dingle won the high-point award for 15 and over females in Belleville, while S. Cairns brought it home from Ottawa.  On the male side in Belleville, Rafik Jiwa earned the male 13 and 14 high-point award, while Joseph Rittenhouse won it for the 10 and under males.

The BYST brought a record of 30 athletes to Eastern Ontario Regional Long Course Championships held in Nepean earlier in June, where they were able to finish sixth overall out of over 20 teams.

Rafik Jiwa led the way with six gold medals in the 200m breaststroke, 200m and 400m individual medley, the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, plus a silver in the 400m freestyle and was the overall point leader amongst 13 and 14 males.  Nate Shiers-Redhead who won four gold medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle, as well as the 50m and 100m breaststroke, where he achieved Age Group National time standard.  Lauren Taylor swam to gold in the 200m backstroke, silver in the 50m backstroke and bronze in the 200 individual medley, 50m and 200m freestyle.  Stephanie Cairns won gold, plus achieved a Sr. National time standard in the 400m freestyle, as well as had two bronze in the 100m and 200m freestyle.  Melissa Dingle finished with two silver medals in the 50m and 200m backstroke, plus a bronze in the 100m backstroke.  Katelyn Cairns earned a bronze in the 800m freestyle and the 1500m freestyle where she achieved the Age Group National time standard.  Sadie Morphet earned the bronze in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1:33.39.  Other swimmers with top 8 placings included Ashley Allaire, Jackson Bonn, Noah Brooks, Thomas Butler, Tess Friar, Josh Lamoureux, Mackenzie Latter, Jenna O’Neill, Gwen Randall and Joseph Rittenhouse.

The last regular season meet took place in Brockville where Ashley Allaire led the way with two first place finishes in the 100m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley, plus a second place in the 200m freestyle.  Nickolas Cinnamon collected a first place finish in the 100m butterfly, second place in the 200m individual medley and 100m freestyle, to go along with two third place finishes in the 50m freestyle and 100m breaststroke.  Janna Arnold took home three third place finishes in the 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and 100m freestyle.  Paige Launderville earned second place in the 100m backstroke, plus third place in the 50m butterfly and the 200m freestyle.  Joseph Rittenhouse swam to second place in the 100m butterfly and third overall in the 100m breaststroke, while Jenna O’Neill finished second overall in the 400m freestyle.  Other BYST members racing were Cara Arnold, Shayla Coe, Jayden MacDonald, Mia Norohna, Lara Norohna and Tess O’Neill.

The BYST also competed at a meet in Kingston at the end of May where Janna Arnold, Katherine Beaumont, Noah Brooks, Giri Krishna, Gautham Krishna, Paige Launderville, Victoria McDowell, Leah McGillen, Maddie McGillen, Rylan Miller, Jeremy Moher, Olivia Morphet, Sadie Morphet, Jenna O’Neill, Leah Oster and Amy Sommerville all collected medals.

Sixteen separate team records were broken this month, which shows the team is ready to race fast this summer.

The BYST capped off its regular season with an Awards Banquet this past weekend.  Award winners were:
– Team Spirit Award:  Nikki Cairns
– Sportsmanship:  Victor Coutu and Jenna O’Neill
– Most Improved Jr. BYST Female:  Zoe Bouma and Emeline Williams
– Most Improved Jr. BYST Male:  Nathan Fisher
– Most Improved Age Group Female:  Paige Launderville, Sadie Morphet and Lily Randall
– Most Improved Age Group Male:  Craig Bekker and Brendan MacQuarrie
– Most Improved Senior Female:  Katherine Beaumont
– Most Improved Senior Male:  Noah Brooks and Thomas Butler
– Jr. BYST Coaches Award:  Cara Arnold and Dallas Ketcheson
– Age Group Coaches Award:  Leah Oster, Felicity Petherick and Luc Simard
– Senior Coaches Award:  Katelyn Cairns and Quintin Lichty
– Golden Goggle Award:  Rafik Jiwa
– Top Performance Award:  Stephanie Cairns and Melissa Dingle

Next season begins in September and limited space is available.  For more information about the swim team, visit http://www.byst.ca or contact the Head Coach, Brandon Oates at (613) 661-SWIM (7946).